New Year’s Eve Traditions for Couples You Have to Try This Year
New Year’s Eve is a special time for couples: a night to celebrate, reflect on the past year, and look forward to new beginnings. Beyond the countdown and fireworks, New Year’s Eve traditions for couples offer meaningful ways to create memories and even bring a little luck into your relationship.
From classic rituals like kissing at midnight or making resolutions together to playful superstitions from around the world, there are plenty of ways to make the night fun and memorable.
In fact, New Year’s Eve is considered a relationship holiday, making it the perfect occasion to celebrate your bond and start the year on a loving note.
In this article, we tackle New Year’s traditions differently:
- We talk at length about 5 common traditions for couples and the meaning behind them
- We give other ideas of traditions couples can implement to attract abundance and love into the new year.
What are Some Common New Year's Eve Traditions for Couples
Here are 5 New Year’s Eve traditions most couples follow, along with their history and significance (and yes, most of them are all about bringing luck, if we’re being honest).
💋 Kissing at Midnight
One of the most common New Year’s traditions, especially for couples, is the midnight kiss. Whether it’s your partner, a friend, or a family member, on the lips or the cheek, the kiss as the clock strikes twelve is meant to bring luck and set the tone for the year ahead.
History and What It Means
As Vogue explains, the tradition of kissing at midnight can be traced back over 2,000 years to the Roman festival of Saturnalia, a celebration honoring Saturn, the agricultural god. While celebrating Saturnalia, public displays of affection, including kissing, were common, often fueled by indulgence in food and beverages.
In medieval Europe, the tradition evolved through masquerade balls, where a kiss at midnight was believed to bring love and good fortune and protect from loneliness or tragedy.
Later, in 19th-century America, German immigrants helped shape the modern tradition of kissing at midnight, a custom later popularized by Hollywood in iconic romantic films.
How to Make It a Couple Tradition
Keep it simple: share a kiss at midnight with your partner, and make sure they’re the first person you kiss for a year full of love and prosperity.
🍇 Eating 12 Grapes at Midnight
Maybe you’ve heard of this tradition as “eating grapes under the table” thanks to online trends, but don’t worry, you don’t actually have to hide under a table! The key is simple: eat 12 grapes, one for each chime of the clock at midnight, and do it fast.
History and What It Means
According to Allrecipes.com, this tradition originated in Spain and is known as “Las doce uvas de la suerte” or “The twelve grapes of luck.” It began in the late 1800s and became widely popular in the early 1900s when farmers in Alicante, facing a surplus harvest, encouraged people to eat grapes at midnight to improve sales.
Each grape represents one month of the coming year, and finishing all 12 is said to bring luck for every month. Some people even prepare 12 wishes—one for each grape—but that’s totally optional.
How to Make It a Couple Tradition
- Prepare the grapes beforehand: remove them from the stem and place them in a bowl, on a skewer, or in a small bag if you’re celebrating away from home.
- If you want to add the 12 wishes, write them down.
- Turn it into a challenge: eat the grapes together with your partner, and see who can finish all 12 first.
🥂 Celebrating Together
For centuries, couples have sought to spend New Year’s Eve together. Unlike Christmas, often shared with family, New Year’s is traditionally a time to celebrate your relationship. The idea is simple: celebrating together brings prosperity to the relationship, while skipping it or spending it apart might do the opposite.
How to Make It a Couple Tradition
There are many ways to enjoy the night together:
- Outside: Join the crowds in city squares like Times Square, celebrate on the beach, in a park, at a cabin, or even in your backyard. For adventurous couples, the holiday season is a great excuse to travel and enjoy winter activities like skiing or snowboarding.
- Themed parties: Clubs, restaurants, and hotels compete to host the best New Year’s Eve parties. Couples love the festive atmosphere, though it comes with a higher price tag.
- With friends: Host a party at home or join friends elsewhere. Spending the night with your partner and friends is a social way to celebrate.
- Just the two of you at home: Some couples prefer a quiet night in with some good food, champagne, a favorite movie, or playing fun couple games. Sometimes, simplicity is all you need to mark the passing of the year.
🤔 Reflecting on the Year that Passed
New Year’s Eve isn’t just about parties and celebrations, but it’s also a natural time to look back on the year that has passed. For couples, this reflection is about remembering what worked, what didn’t, and what the past year brought into your relationship.
History and What It Means
For years, the end of the year has been a moment for reflection. While the focus of New Year’s celebrations is often on looking forward, reflecting on the past year has long been a way for couples to process memories together, celebrate growth, and prepare for a better year ahead.
Seeing what brought you closer and what challenges you overcame is a meaningful ritual that can deepen your bond.
How to Make It a Couple Tradition
- Use reflective questions that target deep conversations about your likes, dislikes, and goals of the past year.
- Ask each other about highlights, lessons learned, or moments that mattered most.
- Use a couples’ app like Couple Joy to explore questions specifically designed for couples, helping you share thoughts and feelings you might not otherwise express.
🎯 Making Resolutions Together
We all know the saying “New Year, New Me,” and the start of a new year—whether taken comically or seriously—is seen as the perfect time to set resolutions, both individually and as a couple.
History and What It Means
New Year’s represents a fresh start, a psychological milestone that encourages change. Just as people often begin a new diet or start going to the gym on January 1, the passing of the year motivates us to leave behind what didn’t work and bring in what we want anew.
For partners, resolutions are not just personal promises but a commitment to grow together. Aligning your intentions can bring motivation and mutual support, strengthening your bond.
How to Make It a Couple Tradition
- Base resolutions on reflections: Use the insights you’ve gathered from looking back on the year to create your goals.
- Discuss as a team: Talk openly about what each of you wants to improve or achieve together.
- Keep it realistic: Focus on goals that are achievable given your resources, such as time, money, and work obligations.
What are Some Common New Year's Eve Traditions Couples Can Adopt
In addition to the classic New Year’s Eve traditions for couples, many cultures around the world have superstitious rituals meant to attract love, luck, prosperity, and new beginnings.
While these traditions aren’t specifically created for couples, they’re easy to adapt and can be a fun way to celebrate together.
👙 Wear Red Lingerie
Wearing red on New Year’s Eve is believed to attract prosperity and good luck, with red symbolizing passion and a shield against evil spirits.
🍽️ Smash Plates
In Greece, smashing plates symbolizes letting go of bad energy and making space for new beginnings.
🧳 Walk Around the Block With an Empty Suitcase
This tradition is popular in Latin America and is meant to manifest travel and new adventures in the coming year. For couples dreaming of trips together, it’s the perfect excuse to start planning a long vacation or even a short weekend getaway.
💥 Bang Pots and Pans
Making loud noises at midnight is believed to scare away bad luck and the old year’s negative energy. When fireworks aren’t enough, people bang pots and pans to make sure their homes are cleared for a fresh start.
🐠 Eat Fish
Fish symbolizes abundance and prosperity because it always moves forward. To honor this tradition, include at least one fish-based dish (like salmon, herring, bass, etc.) on your New Year’s Eve table as the clock strikes midnight.
🪣 Throw a Bucket of Water Out the Window
This ritual (popular in Cuba and Puerto Rico) represents renewal, cleansing, and washing away the old year to welcome a fresh start.
💵 Wear Money in Your Underwear
A bold superstition believed to attract financial prosperity and stability in the new year. Couples often laugh about it, but still secretly hope it works.
🪟 Open Doors and Windows
Popular in the Philippines, opening doors and windows at midnight lets the old year out and invites the new one in. It’s a simple but meaningful ritual for fresh energy and new beginnings.
💳 Don’t Have Any Debts
It’s believed that all personal debts should be paid off by January 1st, or financial struggles may follow throughout the year. Along the same lines, lending or borrowing money on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day has the same negative connotation.
🍗 Have the Table Filled With Food at Midnight
A full table symbolizes abundance and prosperity. Sharing plenty of food as the new year begins represents a year filled with nourishment, joy, and togetherness.
Conclusion
Celebrating together with New Year’s Eve traditions for couples turns an ordinary night into lasting memories. Make it even more meaningful with the Couple Joy app, which helps you reflect on your relationship, while keeping it fun and enjoyable!
