New Year's Day is an exciting holiday when friends and family gather together to remember the past year and celebrate the new one. Create a festive atmosphere for your guests with fun and appropriate decorations.
Decorate With Clocks
Clocks are a way to measure time and are the perfect symbol for a New Year's Day party. You can use them as table decorations or room-sized decor.
Clocks as Table Decorations
There are many ways to incorporate clocks into your table decor. One way is to group them together to create a centerpiece, and set all the alarms to go off at midnight. Another idea is to lay them flat on each place setting and set a clear plate on top of it, so the clock shows through the clear plate.
DIY Clock Wall Decorations
Make your own clock wall decorations by adding number stickers to paper circles. Use the numbers to represent the numbers on a clock. Cut arrows out of black paper to create the clock hands. Hang these on the walls. Rather than paper, you can also do this with balloons.
Clock Streamer Decorations
Continuing with the DIY theme, you might choose to create floating clock decorations. Using light glittery scrapbooking paper, cut circles about the size of a large mug. Add number stickers and hands pointing to various times. Punch a small hole. Using ribbon, tie these to helium balloons. Let the balloons float to the ceiling and you have unique clock decorations dancing around your room.
Large Scale Room Decorations
If you are having a big party in a large venue, consider this show-stopping visual centerpiece. The Enchanted Clock Arch from Stumps Party is a large clock-theme archway and retails for about $280.
New Year Numbers
Use the numbers of the upcoming year as decorations for the party. From balloons to light-up numbers, this is a memorable choice.
DIY Number Wall Hanging
Cut large numbers representing the upcoming year out of poster board and use tissue, confetti or silk flowers to decorate this wall hanging. Choose tissue or flowers in colors to complement the rest of your party decorations, or use black and white to match any setting.
Draping Number Garland
You can choose to buy a number garland or create your own to drape along a wall or across the room. Simply cut the numbers out of glitter paper and punch holes in them to slide them on to a string. Add to the appeal by adding glittery folded paper 3D stars. Now drape your garland and wait for your friends to arrive.
Hidden Number Decorations
Your party decor is all about the visual and sometimes, on New Year's, the lights go out. Spice up your New Year's Day holiday decor by adding glow-in-the-dark, vinyl number stickers to your balloons, garlands, streamers, table decorations and even cups. Now turn the lights out and everything comes to life. These can be amazingly fun for those photo ops.
Balloon Numbers
Use affordable foil balloon numbers, such as those from Just Artifacts, to create the number representing the upcoming year. Fill them with helium and set them on the main food table for a fun and festive look.
Light-up Marquee Numbers
For a high-impact decoration, purchase lighted marquee numbers from a home decor store or from Anderson's online. Set the numbers for the year on the buffet table or another prominent place to become the focal point for the party.
Football-Themed New Year
Football is a popular way to celebrate the new year and can help dictate your decoration choices. If your New Year's Day party will be centered around the myriad of football games that are played that day, organize your decorations to reflect the day's activities.
Football Table Decor
Use plain green table cloths or football-themed cloths, and pair these with football-themed plates, cups and napkins. Use a football as a centerpiece to extend the theme.
DIY Football Garland
Create your own football-themed garland by cutting football shapes out of brown paper. Use a white paint pen to draw the laces on them. Then tape the footballs onto string to create a garland. Hang the garlands across the front of tables, over doorways, or anywhere else you want a little more decoration for your party.
Football Pinata
Not only will this be a fun decoration for your football theme, but it can make a great game. You can buy your football pinata at any party supply store or you might choose to make your own pinata. All you need is a balloon, newspaper and a bit of creativity. Hang your pinata from the ceiling or make it a centerpiece on the coffee table.
Goal Post
Go beyond the footballs and add a fun goal post behind your buffet or to set off your table. While you can buy a goal post, you can also make one by cutting the shapes out of yellow construction paper and taping it to the wall. If you are looking for something free standing, try hot gluing yellow bendy straws into the goal post shape. You can then mount it to a piece of foam core board using hot glue. Using yellow Legos is another option.
Giant Inflatable Football
This 45-inch inflatable football from Oriental Trading is the perfect focal point for your party. Use it as a photo op and provide some fun football-themed props such as large foam fingers, team pennants and pom-poms guests can use for fun photos.
Futuristic New Year
New Year's Eve is the perfect time to look towards the future with hope and excitement. Use this as the starting point of your theme.
Space Table Decor
Outer space symbolism is often used in futuristic parties, and this star theme table cloth from Discount Party Supplies is the perfect cover for your food table. Pair it with shiny silver paper products and balloons.
Folded Stars
Make your room out of this world by decorating the walls and hanging stars from the ceiling. All you need is some paper to light up your room with fun origami stars.
DIY Robot Bowl
Buy a silver mixing bowl and use hot glue to add googly eyes, pipe cleaner antennae, nuts and bolts for a nose and ears, and other fun decorations. All it takes is a little creativity to make a robot head bowl to serve party treats.
Floating Aliens
Futuristic parties are a great time to get your alien on. Create an alien banner by cutting out alien heads of all different shapes out of green, blue and yellow construction paper. Get some googly eye stickers and use a black marker to make fun faces. Punch a hole in the top and string them from the ceiling, balloons or even a garland. You'll have an alien explosion.
Predicting the Future
This fun idea doubles as a decoration and a guest book. Place crystal balls on the tables with notebooks and pens nearby. Ask guests to make predictions about the future year and record them in the books.
Decorations As Resolutions
Help guests create goals for the upcoming year with these fun decorations.
Resolutions Board
For a decoration that also works as a fun New Year's activity, make a resolutions board out of posterboard decorated with garlands. Write several common resolutions, such as "lose weight" or "save money," on small pieces of paper. Stick the resolutions onto the board with double-faced tape and have each guest choose one to wear on their clothes for the day. Provide some blank pieces of paper too, so guests can write their own.
Motivational Posters
Hang motivational posters all around your party venue. Inspirational messages such as "You can do it!" and similar sayings will help encourage guests to reach their goals and will help decorate your party setting.
Resolution Balloons
Add common New Year's resolutions (watch less TV, go out more, see friends more, etc.) to small slips of paper. Roll them up and put them in the ends of sparkly New Year's Day balloons. Use double sided tape to attach these to a wall or piece of string. Encourage guests to pop the balloons to choose their secret resolution.
Resolution Wall
Using construction paper, cut out the words "This Year I will..." Carefully tape these on to the wall. Using multicolored sticky notes add a few resolutions of your own. Leave sticky notes and pens out for guests to write their resolutions on, then stick to the wall. Your guests' resolutions will create a colorful work of art.
Resolutions Banner
Customize a banner from Vistaprint with personal photos and messages to hang at the party location. Guests can fill in their resolutions if they choose to participate.
Glitter and Gold
New Year is all about the party. Make your party sparkle through these fun festive decorations that bring out the glam.
Glittery Champagne Balloon Wall
Use gold and silver balloons to make a fun balloon wall that emulates champagne bubbles. Using double sided tape, stick the balloons into a half rainbow shape that gets wider as it goes out. Using black construction paper, cut out an outline of a champagne bottle to put at the start of the balloon bubbles.
Sparkling Confetti Circle Hangs
Cut out large circles out of sparkly gold and silver paper. Punch a hole in the tops. Using gold and glittery ribbon, tie these to black, gold and silver helium balloons. Let the balloons float to the ceiling to create moving confetti.
Gold Fringe Curtain
For those perfect glittery New Year's Day pics, try a glittery curtain backdrop. Hang this from the wall and provide fun photo props for your guests like eyeglasses in the shape of the new year, hats, plastic champagne glasses and beads.
Glittering Disco Ball
Make the glitter go full tilt with a fun disco ball. You can really light up your party by hanging this from the ceiling. If you don't want to fork out the 30 bucks for a real disco ball, you can make your own out of a large Styrofoam ball and aluminum foil. Just cover the ball in foil and hang it from the ceiling.
Sparklers
New Year's is all about the fireworks and sparklers. To create your own, you'll need some shish kabob sticks, gray pom-poms, spray glue and glitter. Cut the sticks in half or thirds, depending on how long you want them, spray glue the pom-poms on and sprinkle them with glitter. Let them dry and hot glue them to the sticks. Stick these around your buffet or dessert table to add a fun sparkler effect.
Simple Decorations
Finally, don't overlook the simple decorations that add a festive look to any occasion. Pull out the good china, add bouquets of fresh flowers to tables and countertops, and stack the table with a lot of delicious foods that guests will love. It's the little things that make your New Year's event really feel like a party.
Have Fun With It
New Year's Day is all about ringing in the new year with your family and friends. Whether you go glam or keep it simple, remember to have fun with your holiday decor.
