Activities For New Year’s Eve

When we had the idea of throwing a small gathering at our house for New Year’s Eve, we did the initial planning around food and drinks, the traditional (for us) stuff: pork, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes, etc. But not one to want to do just the expected things, I talked to Emily about coming up with new activities like we did last year for the gathering. I think it probably says something about my personality that I feel like if we’re gonna have people come together we should do something creative and meaningful, as if talking, connecting, eating isn’t enough!

Reflecting on the Decade

I had the idea to do some kind of decade timeline, but it was Emily’s idea to wed the decade reflection with Godly Play-esque questions. These two things came together well and so we decided to make this the main activity for the evening. It seemed like a good opportunity to invite reflection with friends on the decade, so we laid out some brown packing paper, added dates, and lines, and some questions on the dining room table.

Here’s what it looked like:

We added questions on index cards to prompt reflection for this “Decade in Review.”

1. You favorite moments and events
2. Important changes, accomplishments, failures, and losses
3. Landmarks for human history
4. What could you do without?

The results were pretty fantastic. Our guests dropped in and out, adding favorite memories, babies being born, moving to Greensboro, weddings and more. It was nice to see how the timeline shaped up with some of our friends, but it was also interesting to see how this then became a conversation piece, prompting people to ask questions and notice things.

Individual Reflections for the New Year

We had other, more personal, activities written on index cards and sitting out on the table for folks to engage with (shown above). These activities were based off of ones we did last year. We set out a bunch of different art supplies, magazines, cardboard, etc. so that folks could craft and engage with the activities as they saw fit. Here are those prompts:

1. Write a letter to someone you want to thank for being their for you or write a letter to your future self
2. Get rid of something
3. Pick a word or theme for 2020
4. Create a deck of cards: use images, quotes, words, affirming you in the coming year
5. Make blackout poetry (with pages from One Who Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest)

Not everyone did the activities, which was fine, but it was nice to have these out as an option and I noticed many people tried at least one thing. It helped to break up the conversations, time, and it created some opportunities for some great storytelling. And if nothing else, we had a good time.