New Years of Yore

On new year’s eve 2025, I was thinking about different ways I’ve celebrated that occasion in the past and meaning to make a list of those to put in the previous post—which is why the title of that one mentions “past.” And then that post got very long and I left out the oldies list but failed to change the title—sorry if that was confusing! Perhaps no one cared. Anyway, here, belatedly my reflection/list on past NYEs.

New Year’s Eve is a holiday people are very defensive about. I have stopped asking people if they have any plans because they often react as if I directly questioned their high-school cred. “I SUCK, ok? I’m just going to stay home and watch TV and eat pizza and go to bed at 10 and I’m FINE WITH THAT. If you judge me, that’s YOUR PROBLEM.”

I do not judge people for their new years plans, or lack thereof, but some folks do seem a little insecure and defensive, even though TV and eating at home seems like a widely acceptable good choice for that evening (or any evening). Also I am in my 40s and so are most people I know, give or take—whoever the people with the really wild plans, I don’t know them. Last year Mark and I went to hang out with friends at their place and the 10 of us chatted and ate snacks until midnight, and then Mark and I hurried right home because we were worried about cab competition. This year we flew in the day before and ate frozen appetizers in our living room with some very old friends, and watched the very terrible CNN Times Square ball drop, where the announcers were visibly drunk and not funny, and it appeared to be on a time delay because it wasn’t even exactly midnight.

Both those nights were FANTASTIC, and exactly what I wanted to be doing with the exactly the right people and I was so grateful to be with them and cozy and fully of snacks and fellow feeling. Here are some other memorable but not wild new year’s eves, in no particular order.

1. The year me and my friend Josh went to see Castaway in a movie theatre, and the showing went over midnight. We weren’t dating nor even considering it, just pals without other plans and we both wanted to see that movie. I think we got dinner beforehand, but like, Pizza Hut or similar, nothing fancy. The show must have been a specific new year’s eve showing, since most movies don’t run that late, but there was nothing done by the theatre to mark it. HOWEVER, I brought in a little noisemaker and kept an eye on my glow-in-the-dark watch. When it was midnight, I tooted the noisemaker, just once—I wanted to note the moment and I figured other people would want to know. But somebody SHUSHED ME! It wasn’t Josh, but he did give me a look. I thought Castaway was pretty good.

2. The time I had to work the whole day and then, on the way home from the office, found these really nice boots at a Boxing Day sale and bought them. I went home to kvell about my boots, do my nails, and go to bed at a reasonable hour.

3. The time me and some friends took the bus to downtown Hamilton for a dry NYE celebration starring the local-ish band Honeymoon Suite. None of us had ever heard of them at the time but we all thought they were great and to this day I have a soft spot for them and turn up the radio if a song by them comes on. I recall the night was freezing cold.

4. The year as a child that I had Raspberry Canada Dry for the first time. Childhood NYEs weren’t very elaborate but I remember fighting to be allowed to stay up and getting to buy that soda at the grocery as my special toasting beverage.

5. The year Mark and I were invited to a New Year’s Eve party but we were flying back from PEI that day and the flight got delayed so we just came straight from the airport and brought all our luggage to the party. We didn’t even know the hosts especially well, it just sounded like a fun party and better than going home and unpacking and doing laundry. I think they were surprised about the luggage but nice about it and it was, indeed, a fun party.

6. The year we stayed in PEI for new year’s and one of Mark’s cousins had a gathering and a different cousin brought a balloon-animal-making kit and we all learned to make balloon animals and it was truly amazing.

7. For many years (and probably again in future) Mark and I had occasional NYE parties at our place and they were all pretty excellent. One that stands out is the year we were still partying around 1:30 or 2 or so, and someone came to the door attempting to buy some sort of drug. They were nice about it, and clearly already intoxicated with something or other. Our group, also very intoxicated for the most part, but only with alcohol, really wanted to help the person out, or else get them to join our party. Finally, finally, Mark pieced together that there was ANOTHER party at the end of the hall, and that the person was probably trying to go there. Hugs were exchanged.

All of these evenings were good, ranging from fine to great. I have also had some ones where I just watched TV on my own but they do not generate narrative. However, there is a kind of pop-culture expectation that NYE will be magnitudes above anything I’ve mentioned here. I have never had a really outrageous NYE—the vast majority of my year changeovers have been at my home or someone else’s, and aside from that movie theatre evening, maybe once someone talked me going to a club?? I think once Mark and I went ot a restaurant and then came home before midnight. But somehow there’s an expectation that the night is more…magical…?? Or terrible?? Like this…

We arrived in Rome but the hotel had lost our reservation and of course every other place had been booked long ago for the new year, so we got them to at least store our luggage and then we got some cheap champagne and wandered all over the glorious ancient city all the long night, singing and toasting and meeting strangers who embraced us and brought us into their home for wine and chicken, and there were fireworks and the smell of burning oranges and all the streets were alight with the promise of a new year and we were drunk and delirious with youth and then we fell down to sleep in the gutter and the morning someone got us a hotel room as if by magic.

Or this…

My fiancé and I booked and prepaid for an elaborate gourmet new year’s eve dinner, complete with many courses and wine pairings for each. That morning, my beloved unexpectedly ended our relationship in a hale of insults and fine stemware. Distraught, I decided to go to the restaurant anyway—I had paid good money for all that food and wine and I did not want to be alone. Surrounded by the happy couples and the closely arranged tables, I did not feel better but I felt at least alive! I insisted I be brought everything I had paid for—two trays of escargot, two endive salads, endless bubbly wines. At the cheese course, I could not contain my loud weeping and had to be forcibly removed from the restaurant to the street, where I vomited copiously. But I did not black out—I remembered every moment of that glorious terrible meal.

I wonder if that type of evening is what people are picturing when they think of going “out” for NYE? I saw some sort of news story that so many “superyachts” went to a certain fancy place in the world to celebrate the new year that it was an environmental problem. So perhaps I’m not capable of even imagining the proper type of NYE, since I hadn’t heard of the place in the news story and don’t know what a superyacht is.

Anyway. I’m not sure what the point of this post is, but as ever here at Rose-coloured, I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you enjoy reading it. Today is the four year anniversary of the end of my bed-bug infestation and someone fixed the bench at my bus-stop that has been broken since I’ve known about it so, you know, what else can I ask for?