20 Best New Year’s Eve Party Ideas and Themes to Start 2024 on a High Note

New Year’s eve is all about the sparkle and fun! Play on this idea by having a disco party. Set up disco balls galore and have everyone wear shiny and sparkly clothing. And of course, make space for a dance floor! Dancing is a must at your disco party.

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For a fun activity, set up a piñata! And remember, this doesn’t have to be a “kids” things – be creative with what you fill it up with! Aside from candy, fill your piñata with confetti, little bottles of booze, stickers, carabiners, bottle openers, and even little notes with fortunes on them.

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Black and Gold SCREAM New Year’s Eve! Take these classic colors and make it the theme of your party. Have your guests dress accordingly, put up black and gold decorations, and serve food and drink that fits the “fancy” vibe, such as delicious hors d’oeuvres and fun cocktails.

How iconic would this NYE party be?! Assuming you’re obsessed with Taylor Swift like the rest of the world is, this theme idea will be super fun and unique. This theme is fitting because of “midnights”, of course, as a big part of New Year’s Eve is counting down the minutes to midnight, in order to ring in the new year. There are lots of ways you can celebrate with this theme: for decorations, foods/drinks, and clothing, play off the colors of the album (whites, blues, purples), take inspiration from specific songs (‘Bejeweled’, ‘Lavender Haze’, ‘Maroon’, etc.), plan games related to the album and Taylor in general, and of course, blast her music!

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Add some sparkly or beaded curtains as part of your decor. They can also double as a back drop for photos! This is an easy way to elevate your space and increase the “sparkle-factor” for your New Year’s Eve party!

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As the year comes to a close, people are thinking about and reflecting on the last 365 days. At your gathering, set up an area where guests can write a memory and post it up – anonymous or not! Set up pens and paper, and be creative with the posting method. You can paint a board with magnetic paint and put magnets out, make a drop top frame for people to drop their memories in, or do something as simple as post-it notes. Throughout the party, people can add memories and read others’ memories.

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New Year’s Eve is generally a long day for most… after all, we technically end the night in the morning! So, as a fun tradition for your gathering, have breakfast for dinner! From cinnamon rolls, french toast, and muffins, to eggs, hash browns, and lox and bagels, there are TONS of different foods you can devour.

Paris, a.k.a. ‘The City of Light’, is an iconic NYE destination. If you can’t make it to this beautiful city, throw a party based on it! Tie in the Eiffel Tower, serve French-inspired foods, dress in chic outfits, and pull out all the twinkling lights and firework decorations. This New Year’s Eve party will be ultra glamorous and dazzling!

For this New Year’s Eve party idea, have everyone create a presentation! Your group can come up with a more specific theme, such as best (and worst) foods eaten that year, love life overview from the year, top purchases from the year, or best TV shows/films from the year. Or, you can make it more general and have everyone just present on some of their favorite memories. Use PowerPoint, Canva, or any other platform of your liking. Everyone can spend time compiling memories, photos, stories, and videos to put together on their slideshows. Then, prep snacks, turn on some background music, and take turns presenting to each other! This is a NYE idea for everyone to reflect on the year together and to have slideshows to look back on for years to come.

If you’re having a more intimate gathering with friends or family, consider decorating journals! Journaling is a great way to document your year, and decorating your notebook will encourage you even further to stay consistent with your entries! First things first: find journals of your liking! Whether it’s a spiral binding, bulleted, or lined, it’s totally up to you! In terms of decorating, find stickers, pictures, text, and anything else you wan to put on your journal. Then you can Mod Podge it all on to make sure everything stays. This is a perfect idea for a girls night NYE activity!

At a more intimate gathering, make predictions for the New Year! These can be about each other, celebrities, politics, other friends, or the world in general, and relate to anything from relationships and career to music and film. Have some food, play good music, visualize the new year, and store these predictions in a labeled mason jar. Then, the next year around the same time, your group can read the predictions to see if any came true, and write new ones for the upcoming year.

Fortune cookies in and of themselves would be a great addition to your New Year’s Eve party! Hand them out when people walk in, or give them as party favors. You can even get personalized messages on the notes to make it a bit more meaningful and fun. Besides traditional fortune cookies, though, consider putting a twist on this treat! For instance, you can make chocolate bombs and put fortunes in there. Or, simply take the element of the “fortune” and attach good wishes to appetizer skewers, drink glasses, etc. Be creative with this! The idea here is to spread good fortunes for the New Year.

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‘Reach for the Stars!’ is a perfect New Year’s Eve party theme idea because it gives the sparkle and shine of NYE, while also incorporating an element of goal setting and dreaming big! Plan your decorations, foods, and outfits around the star theme, and put up tons of lights. You can also set up an activity related to setting goals, similar to #6 and #14 on this list. For instance, maybe you put out star-shaped papers that people can write their goals and hopes on and hang up, or maybe you set up a polaroid photo booth station, get star film, and have people write a memory from the year or wish for the new year on the front or back.

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Going into a new year, people are thinking about all the things they want to happen. To play off of this, set up an activity where guests can write these wishes and manifestations on something concrete. Not only will this encourage people to think optimistically going into the new year, but making these wishes concrete may make it more likely that people actually work towards their goals and are intentional about them.

Get the party going with some dancing juice! Have your guests concoct fun cocktails and host a competition. Not only will the drinks for the night be covered, but everyone will get to try a bunch of different, unique cocktails. If you want to take it a step further, have everyone pair their cocktail with an appetizer! This New Year’s Eve party idea will encourage some friendly competition, get everyone involved, and be the perfect activity to help ring in the new year.

An important theme in Alice in Wonderland is time, which relates perfectly to New Year’s Eve! NYE is all about reflecting on the past, looking forward to what’s to come, and counting down the minutes to the New Year. Incorporate quotes, colors, characters, and other elements of the movie into your decorations, foods, and outfits. You can certainly have a full on tea party with finger sandwiches, tea, and a more intimate set up. However if you’re using this theme for a larger NYE party, you can use tea cups as drink glasses, dress in whimsical colors or outfits inspired by the characters, wear fun hats, and decorate with clocks and bright colors to bring it all together. Scroll Pinterest for lots of inspo!

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A photo booth at your party is a MUST! You have to capture all the memories in the last minutes of the year, and the first minutes of the new year. Set up a fun back drop, put out silly props, and even provide a polaroid or film camera. You and your guests will be snapping pics all night.

This NYE party theme is a classic, but for good reason! You can certainly pick a specific decade to be the theme, or you can have everyone dress in different themes – from the roaring 20s to the groovy 60s, people will have a lot of fun with this. Alternatively, to make it a bit more personal, you can have your guests dress in the different decades of their lives. For instance, they can dress like their high school or college self, and pull out all the fads and trends from years ago. This theme is sure to bring some good laughs and nostalgia to your New Year’s Eve night.

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Make your party extra memorable by setting up a chocolate fountain! Not only is this super fun and extravagant, but your guests will love the interactive aspect of the treat. Along with the fountain, put out cookies, fresh fruit, dried fruit, pretzels, and any other chocolate dip-able snacks. Use some fancy skewers to dip the goodies in the chocolate fountain.

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Bubbly is huge part of New Year’s Eve – why not make it the theme? Use champagne-colored decor, put up bubbly, sophisticated decorations, and use sparkly dishware and food accessories. Guests can wear neutral sparkles and pearls! This is a great NYE party theme idea if you want something a bit more elegant and classy.