The holiday season is here! New Year’s Eve is a great time to host a sober celebration. Whether you are in early recovery or have been around for years, these New Year’s Eve festivities will be a perfect way to welcome the upcoming year. We encourage you to attend sober gatherings during the holidays. Although there are plenty of other ways to celebrate, being with sober friends ensures a positive way to celebrate the end of the year.
We’ve compiled a list of sober New Year’s Eve ideas you will enjoy during the holiday season.
Ideas to Celebrate New Year’s Eve
If this is your first New Year’s Eve in sobriety, it’s time to start a new tradition. Alcohol addiction is in the past, and now we look forward to the new year. In Alcoholics Anonymous, we aim to have fun. As the Big Book says, “We are not a glum lot.” The first step to a happy new year is to spend time with sober friends.
Here are some party ideas for New Year’s Eve:
Host a Game Night
Game nights are a way to invite friends over and create a sense of community. Invite your sober friends to play board games, online video games, or card games. Game night is one of the best ways to celebrate with friends in recovery.
Invite People for a Potluck
In addition to game night, potlucks are a great way to bring people together. Potlucks can be held during the week in the evening after work or on the weekends. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner all work for potlucks. Create a sign-up sheet so people know what others are bringing. Consider serving mocktails or non-alcoholic beverages, which can be fun.
Movie Marathon
Grab the popcorn and line up movies on your favorite streaming service to share with close friends during your recovery journey. You can have a movie theme night, too. Some themes include favorite movies, comedies, romances, classic films, and documentaries.
Serve your favorite mocktail with salty and sweet snacks like popcorn and candy. The grocery store has boxes of movie-size candy for a great price. Movie night is a fun way to celebrate your sober lifestyle.
Mocktail Party
Turn on the TV to watch the ball drop in Times Square, create a bar area, and create some tasty mocktails for your guests. Some mocktail ideas include:
- Arnold Palmer
- Chili-Lime-Pineapple Soda
- Lemon-Lavender Mocktail
- Pina Colada Mocktail
- Roy Rogers
- Shirley Temple
- Virgin Mojito
If you do not want to host your own party, there may be sober bars where you live. Gather your support group and go to the sober bar together. These bars have creative mocktails and snacks, music, and can be a good time.
Host a Themed Cooking Night
If you like cooking or baking, one party idea is to get in the kitchen and cook up some of your favorite dishes or snacks to munch while you binge-watch a show or a movie. Invite friends to bring ingredients to make their favorite dish, and, then cook them together. A cooking night is a fun alternative to a dinner party.
Creative ideas for a themed cooking night include breakfast for dinner, Texas BBQ, pasta night, soup and salad night, Mexican night, and Italian night.
Attend a Broadway Show
During the holidays, there are plenty of ballets, Broadway musicals, and even comedy shows. Order tickets before the show and enjoy your New Year’s Day surrounded by glorious music.
Create a Vision Board
On the last night of the year, a sober New Year’s Eve celebration idea is to create a vision board with friends. Invite your support network to bring magazines and newspapers to cut and glue ideas on the vision board. Since this is a sober New Year’s Eve party idea, focusing the vision board on the upcoming year makes sense. You could also create a contrast vision board, half about the past year and half on what you see for yourself next year. Party guests can create their own vision board, or you can make one vision board for all the friends.
Host Karaoke Night
Karaoke is fun and entertaining for all. If you have a karaoke machine, it’s a great opportunity to host a party at your house. You can rent a karaoke machine at home or pull up videos with lyrics on YouTube. This is a classic NYE activity because you’ll have a good time – guaranteed!
Go Ice Skating
Finally, ice skating is an excellent activity if you want to enjoy the outdoors. Afterward, get a hot cocoa to warm you up. You can go ice skating even if you don’t know how to skate; it’ll be a great learning experience with lots of laughs!
Plan a Ski Trip
Plan a ski trip with your sober community. You can all stay together in a cabin, take turns cooking, and ski during the day. You’ll have a support group to go to dinner with and share a quiet night at night. Some ski resorts host New Year’s celebrations. Having your sober network with you, everyone can go to the resort celebrations together.
Take a Road Trip
Going on a road trip with your sober friends is a good idea and can be fun. Try restaurants in other cities, find out what is fun to do in the local area, and if you need extra support, find the local recovery meetings. The good news is AA is available almost everywhere. So, on your road trip, attending a meeting can be easy.
Conclusion
What is key to celebrating New Year’s Eve in recovery? A supportive environment. The ideas presented above are ways to celebrate the new year in addiction recovery. If you have close family members, they may be ideal party guests, as well as your friends in recovery. The upcoming year includes a brighter future for you. We hope this article gives you some ideas on how to celebrate and make a positive impact on not only your life but others.