New Year's Traditions for Couples

Start off the new year with a new tradition to strengthen your relationship.

It doesn’t matter if you’ve been together for ten days or ten years, you can always start a new tradition. And when better than the New Year, a time to start fresh? We’ve created a list of suggestions for couples who are looking to make their New Year’s celebrations special for years to come. Some of these ideas might be familiar to you, while others might push you out of your comfort zone.

Which new tradition will you start this year?

Make a Romantic Toast

Here’s to more romantic New Year’s toasts! Toasts are not only reserved for weddings and retirement parties—they can liven up any occasion. Each year make a tradition of lifting your glass of champagne (or other) to the past year and the years to come, even if it is just the two of you. Take the opportunity to express your gratitude or to confess your love to that person so special to you, since you’re granted a bit of sentimentality. Cheers!

Share a Spicy Kiss

You probably already make a tradition of kissing your date on New Year’s Eve (if not, you’ve got some making up to do), but this year it’s time to spice things up. On New Year’s Eve, mention in passing to your husband, wife, or partner how you are looking forward to your upcoming kiss. You could even leave a saucy note for them to find. Then, when the time comes, no pecking allowed. At the end of the much-anticipated countdown, kiss them long and deep, like in the old movies. You’ll set your date’s heart fluttering.

Make a “Best of” List

Here’s a tradition everyone should start doing: make a “best of” list for the ending year. Best memory, best movie, best TV show, best song, best trip, best life event, you name it. Compare answers with your date and explain why you chose the answers you chose. Then keep the list in a book with lists from previous years so you can look back and laugh about your fondest memories.

Predict the future

New Year’s Eve is a great time to think back on the past, but it is also a great time to think forward to the future. Make it a tradition to each write down a prediction for the upcoming year (you can do this in the same book as your “best of” list). Then, next New Year’s Eve, confirm whether or not your prediction came true. Just for fun, you can also write down your horoscope predictions for the upcoming year, mysterious proverbs from fortune cookies, or magic 8-ball answers. See what happens!

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Watch the Ball Drop

Each year in New York City’s Times Square, a glowing ball descends to mark the start of the New Year. The tradition stems from an old maritime practice at port of dropping a ball down a pole at noon so that ships could adjust their clocks to the local time. The practice was adopted by Americans to mark the New Year in 1907, utilizing what was then a relatively new invention: the lightbulb. The current ball used today is 12 feet in diameter, weighs 11,875 pounds, and contains 2,688 Waterford crystals and 32,256 LED lights.

Make a tradition of watching the broadcast of the ball dropping with your loved one. In doing so, you participate in a long-held tradition and join millions of others in celebration.

Challenge Yourselves

Forget resolutions, make it a tradition every year to challenge yourselves to accomplishing a joint goal. You could date once a week, watch an entire movie list, have a monthly board game night, or take up a new sport together. We’ve created a date night kit and set of free printables to give you more ideas so you can improve yourselves and improve your relationship.

Reminisce

Make it a tradition each New Year to look back at good times you’ve spent together and reminisce. Flip through old photo books, listen to a collection of “your songs”, and let the memories flood back. Need some guidance? We created a mini-date just for the occasion.

Ring a Bell

We’ve all heard the phrase “ring in the new year”, but how many of us actually do it? Start a new tradition with your significant other of ringing bells at midnight on New Year’s Eve. The practice dates back hundreds of years and still continues to this day. Traditionally, church bells peal during grand celebrations, like weddings, and toll for sombre occasions, like funerals. When bells ring out on New Year’s Eve, it celebrates the coming of the new year and mourns the passing of the last one.

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Write a Poem

As Tennyson wrote in his poem In Memoriam,

“Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.”

If you’re looking for a unique New Year’s tradition, make a practice of writing a poem together (or separately) to mark the New Year. It doesn’t have to be incredibly touching or impressive—it could even be a limerick. We’ve created a mini-date that will guide you each step of the way. Each year look over the previous years’ poems and see how far you’ve come.

Reflect on the Nature of Time Passing

It’s deep, but hey, we know you’re going to do it anyway. Years pass. We grow older. When better to reflect on the nature of time than the New Year? The real question is how to make it part of your tradition as a couple. We suggest singing—yes, singing!—an old Scottish folk song, “Auld Lang Syne.” No doubt you’ve heard the song before on New Year’s Eve, but do you know what it means?

“Auld lang syne” translates literally to “old long since,” but we could translate it in our common speech to “times gone by.” So, as you sing the song together, reflect on the lyrics and what it means for time to pass us by. Here’s a modern English translation:

“Should old acquaintances be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should old acquaintances be forgot,
And times gone by?

For times gone by, my dear
For times gone by,
We will take a cup of kindness yet
For times gone by

We two have run about the hills
And pulled the daisies fine,
But we have wandered many weary paths
Since times gone by

We two have paddled in the stream
From noon til dinner time,
But seas between us have roared broad
Since times gone by

And here’s a hand, my trusty friend,
Give me a hand of thine,
And we will take a goodwill drink of ale
For times gone by!”

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What are your New Year’s traditions as a couple? Let us know @makeadateofit

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