As the winter sets in, we are looking forward to the most brilliant and wonderful winter holiday — New Year’s Eve. Both children and adults are excited about the New Year’s Eve in Ukraine because on this night all the dreams and desires come true, or so we believe. But how to make the New Year’s Eve party cheerful and special? Let’s talk about that.

Preparing for The New Year’s Eve in Ukraine

Guest author: Natalya Grischenko (Ukraine, Nezhin)

It’s important to decorate the New Year (Christmas) tree and the whole home for celebrations.

If you want the event to be successful, you should prepare for it far in advance: Decorate the room for celebration, dress the New Year (Christmas) tree, cook delicious meals, settle the guest list and entertainment program. All this requires time and effort, but as the result your guests will be more than satisfied and happy.

Probably, every family has its own New Year’s Eve celebration traditions. Some organize a common festive table for friends and relatives, while others arrange a feast for the whole world. We usually celebrate the arrival of the coming year in the company of friends. It’s fun, exciting and once-in-a-lifetime. Today I am going to share some interesting party ideas with you.

It’s easy to welcome the New Year in a way that no one can forget. You just need to find something special every time. For example, you can celebrate it in different places. We’ve already had it in a country house, a bathhouse, a café, and abroad. All these days left unforgettable memories of joy and laughter. The most cheerful New Year’s Eve party we had took place in the bathhouse. Let me tell you about this one, it’s special.

New Year in The Bathhouse

The most cheerful New Year’s Eve party we had was in a bathhouse.

Two years ago, we decided to follow the example of the main character in movie “The Irony of Fate” (one of the cult “New Year” films in Russia) and went to the bathhouse on December 31. In the movie the hero gets drunk while celebrating the upcoming holiday with friends, and then by mistake gets transported to another city. In that city he meets the girl he falls in love with. It’s a sweet and kind-hearted comedy from the times of Soviet Union, which is still being watched by millions every year.

But first we needed to prepare. There were 9 of us and each was responsible for some specific point of the party. Thus one booked the bathhouse, the second decorated it, and another set the festive table, and as for me, I arranged the entertainment program.

I came up with many exciting competitions and tasks, so that the guest don’t get bored. First we grilled kebabs, and after that went to the sauna. We had a great time! The highlight of the program was a game. It was the game that cheered everybody up even more than music and dancing.

The Highlight of The Party

All participants performed their tasks.

The game worked like this: The Snow Maiden offered each guest to pull out of a bag a small note with a “task”. Every participant had to do what was written in the note.

Here are some examples of tasks:

• Pick any letter of the alphabet, and the other players have to find something in their plates that begins with that letter. Who could not find something that starts with the letter, had to drink a glass of vine for the coming year.
• Dance with a partner to a New Year song or you both have to drink a big glass of vine to the bottom.
• Tell a funny joke or drink and kiss your mate.

Of course, no one wanted to drink a full glass of vine, so the participants were happy to do the tasks instead. At midnight, we clicked glasses filled with champagne and wished each other all the best. After that  we had some fireworks outside. It was a gorgeous sight!

Video: “The Irony of Fate”, The Bathhouse Scene

This is the bathhouse scene from the movie, where the hero gets drunk, while being teased by his friends about getting married. His friends never met this fiancée, to whom he recently proposed. Another friend was supposed to fly from Moscow (where the movie starts) to St. Petersburg to spend the New Year’s Eve with his family. The friends, who drank too much vodka followed by beer, found two of their mates passed out after this intense drinking session at the bathhouse. They decided to assist their mate by begging the airline stuff to let him through. Unfortunately, they sent a wrong guy to another city: The groom. When he temporarily woke up on landing, he dictated the address to the taxi driver, and lol and behold, there was the street with the same name and the same shape high-rise. The apartment in the building in St. Petersburg was identical to his own. Even the furniture was alike. Our hero managed to enter the apartment and fell asleep on the couch. The apartment belonged to a single lady, who was expecting her boyfriend, who was going to propose to her on the New Year’s Eve. The drunk guy mixed up all the plans by waking up and falling in love with the single lady, who was about to marry the wrong guy. It’s a sweet story about a couple of middle-aged people who could never find real love until that date.

Read also:

• New Year greetings for Russian and Ukrainian women
• My New Year Eve’s romance (Volgograd, Russia)
• Christmas Holidays in Ukraine and Russia
• Ukrainian Women Get 7 Days Off To Celebrate Christmas and New Year in 2016