Celebrating the New Year

Taking some tips from the web's finest in entertaining. This is our collection of ideas from Martha, FoodNetwork, Rachel and more. They are all inexpensive and simple ways to celebrate...enjoy our top five favorites!

Sipping Style

Wrap glasses with short lengths of silk and velvet ribbon, and secure with double-sided foam tape. Use Glue Dots (available at crafts stores) to attach embellishments such as glitter-covered card stock circles or stars. Or use stick-on jewels. Choose materials that play up the theme of your party. For a more organic look, wrap glasses in twine.

Hopes and Dreams
Give guests an outlet for their wishful thinking with wish boxes. Provide scraps of paper for them to write their wishes. Make the boxes from leftover Christmas gift packages. Leave the box without a lid so there is an opening to put the paper slips into. Spray adhesive on the boxes, and sprinkle glitter over them. Cut two holes in the back of each box, and slip a ribbon through so the boxes can hang from the back of a chair. Glue silver glitter onto cardboard letters, and using a glue gun, attach them to the box, spelling out “wish.”

Shimmering New Year's Streamers
Leftover holiday paper gets a fresh start when used to make decorations for a New Year's party.

Confetti Eggs
Hatch some fun: Crack confetti-filled hollow eggs over friends' heads in celebration of the new year. The confetti that comes pouring out signifies all the good days to come.

New Year's Centerpiece
For a contemporary centerpiece that turns into party favors at the stroke of midnight, arrange a group of colorful noisemakers on top of a cake stand (use glasses to hold any items that don't stand up by themselves). Fill in the surrounding spaces with tinsel. When it's time for the countdown, every one of your guests will have the means to make plenty of celebratory noise.