The end of 2020 was always likely to be a bit of a fizzle than a bang, what with Covid-19 continuing to rage through our communities. But with a new strain brewing and most of the country in a Tier 4 lockdown, things are likely to be even more subdued than first thought.
Celebrating the new year by drinking with your mates is now out the window – and responsibly should have been anyway – so what are your options for safely seeing in the new year? The Voice Contributors have come up with a few ideas.
Go Old-School With Your Favourite Board Games
I’ve never really been one for going out on New Year’s - everywhere is too crowded, and the hype always seems to lead to disappointment - so the COVID restrictions have given me the perfect excuse to do what I enjoy most over the holidays: spending quality time with my family.
Before we all (reluctantly, with a sense of obligation) head out to separate clubs/pubs/parties, my family usually spends the afternoon of New Year’s Eve playing board games : Trivial Pursuit, Bananagrams, and Smart Ass are particular favourites. As none of us can go out this year, the true party can continue way into the early hours of the morning!
If board games aren’t really your thing, you can always New Years it up with a drinking game twist. A word of warning, though: a shot after every wrong answer during Trivial Pursuit is never a good idea.
- Matteo Everett
Dunk Yourself In The Freezing Atlantic
Photo by Rachel Claire from Pexels
I never know what to do for New Years. It always seems to be such a non‐committal celebration, without the pomp or feast of Christmas, always a rung somewhere under Halloween.
As a result, I've generally tried to do something different every year. Possibly my best New Year’s celebration so far involved dunking myself in the sea. There are several variations on this, I know of one family that insists on plunging themselves as early as Christmas day, every year! Some people make a religious thing out of it, new birth or what have you. When I dunked, it was a pre‐covid world, part of a huge crowd, charity run, televised event where the whole Welsh coastal village of Saundersfoot agreed to expose themselves en masse to the icy waves.
Aside from being bracing and invigorating and other things the British say when they're profoundly cold but refuse to admit it, it was an incredibly heartening start to a new year! It made a much more exciting prospect than another early morning paying extortionate prices to grimly defend a table from marauding drunks.
- Dan Hodgkiss
Cosy Up With Film and TV
One of my favourite ways to celebrate the New Year has been to have a Star Wars marathon. What better way to bring in 2021 and kiss goodbye to 2020 than by watching Star Wars movies back to back. They say all good things come in threes and we’ve often journeyed past midnight into the early hours by watching a Star Wars trilogy. NYE is the perfect time to defeat the dark side of this past year. May the force be with you in 2021!
New Years Eve can feel like a magical spell-binding time of year, so why not celebrate the witching hour at home by watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina on Netflix. Personally, this is the reason I am most looking forward to New Years this year! The final season is dropping on Netflix on the 31st December, so what better way to count down to the New Year than by joining the Spellmans for their fabulous finale!
- Mary Strickson
Tomorrowland Virtual NYE
NYE has always been the second most important event of the year for me (after Halloween, of course). So for those who usually spend their NYE out celebrating, finding something to do at home almost seems impossible.
Fortunately, Tomorrowland is hosting its first-ever NYE virtual event. A preview of cutting edge digital entertainment, the event boasts 24 acts across four different stages, adapted to all 27 time zones in the world - with a countdown to midnight with virtual firework for each time zone.
“I’m going to play so much unreleased music and I really want to take people on a journey, playing some different sounding stuff and new things – I want it to be more of an experience.” Martin Garrix (Tomorrowland NYE, press release).
As the only event to attempt something on such a grand and technological scale this NYE, I’m looking forward to seeing what they produce!
- Elle Farrell-Kingsley
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