You refuse to spend New Year's Eve sprawled alone on the couch, surrounded by empty ice cream cartons and watching a ball drop. You won't stand in a two-hour line to get into a bar, only to stand in another line for a drink once inside. And you won't spring for a $75 bottle of champagne. This New Year's Eve, you're going to a real party. Heck, you're going to throw the party. But what do you know about throwing a New Year's party? Nothing. But fear not: The Cardinal is here to help you throw the New Year's Eve party people will talk about for years to come.
Invites
New Year's Eve is a night full of parties. What will make people come to yours? You certainly do not want your party's only guests to be Dick Clark and your next-door neighbor's boss's cousin. As a host, you must hype up the party like it is your job. And, of course, invite people.
Two to three weeks before the big night, decide how many people you will invite. Will the guest list include 15 of your closest friends? Or 250 of your closest friends? Decide whether only invited guests may attend or if guests should bring friends.
Once you know who you want at the party, invite them. Hand-written invitations are not necessary for an informal bash. Instead, call or e-mail guests and give them the essential information-the time and place of the party, directions and whether they need to bring anything.
Party supplies
Even an informal New Year's party needs the proper equipment to help your guests-who will likely be festively inebriated by midnight-ring in the new year as loudly as possible. Head over to Party City of Madison, 233 Junction Rd., and stock up on the traditional obnoxious, corny and just plain fun supplies that make New Year's worth celebrating.
If the thought of vacuuming up tiny pieces of plastic for a few weeks fails to faze you, provide an ample amount of confetti for people to toss around. Party City carries bags from 99 cents to $1.99. It also has various noisemakers, all of which cost less than a dollar, and you can even buy kits containing several different kinds, along with leis, New Year's hats and the like. The kits run from $6.25 to $60. Pick out some latex balloons and have them filled up for 49 cents apiece, and if you're looking for something even classier, give a balloon drop a shot. Buy a balloon-drop bag with a ripcord for $7.99 and fill it with balloons you blow up yourself-you can buy a bag of them for $1.99. When the clock strikes 12, let 'em rip.
Music
Do not expect guests to stay until midnight without a bumpin' soundtrack to your party. With a large guest list, it may be difficult to find music everyone will enjoy. The Cardinal has taken the guesswork out for you, and created the perfect mix-CD to burn for your New Year's Eve Bash:
1. Junior Senior, \Move Your
Feet""
2. Outkast, ""Hey Ya""
3. Cheap Trick, ""I Want You to
Want Me""
4. The Flaming Lips, ""The
Gash""
5. Bon Jovi, ""Livin' on a Prayer""
6. Will Smith, ""Willennium""
7. Outkast, ""Rosa Parks""
8. Prince, ""1999""
9. Marvin Gaye, ""Got to Live it
Up""
10. Auld Lang Syne
Drinks
You can never go wrong with a keg of beer and bottles of cheap champagne for your party. Riley's Wines of the World, 402 W. Gorham St., has a huge variety of champagne, including bottles of Korbel for $7.99. Or serve up a treat your guests will never expect, such as rum-spiced cider or mocha mint cocktails.
Rum-spiced cider
Ingredients:
1 gallon pure apple cider
12 cloves
2 whole cinnamon sticks (each
about 3 inches)
Half a lemon, sliced
2 tablespoons honey
2/3 cup Red Hots candy
1 cup rum
Mix the cider, cloves, cinnamon, lemon and honey in a large pot. Let the mixture simmer over low heat for 45 minutes, then strain. Put the mixture back on the heat, add red hots and stir until the candy dissolves. Add the rum before serving the cider either hot or cold.
Mocha mint
Ingredients:
3/4 oz. Bailey's Irish Creme
3/4 oz. White Creme De Cacao
3/4 oz. White Creme De
Menthe
Shake, then serve alone or on the rocks!
Be sure to have the necessary glasses to serve drinks in. To further jazz things up, use edible shot glasses, available at Urban Outfitters, 604 State St. The glasses come in cherry, lemon and the ever-festive candy cane flavor and are two for $8. And of course, while alcohol will certainly liven up any party, be sure to have water available for guests throughout the night.
Food
Stick with easy-to-make appetizers for your party. Avoid foods that are likely to end up on the floor, but realize something will spill no matter what. These potato skins are simple to put together and less of a mess.
Herbed Potato Skins
Recipe courtesy http://www.practical kitchen.com
Ingredients:
3 medium baking potatoes
oil
4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled
1 1/2 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. basil
1/4 tsp. rosemary
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
Prick the potatoes and rub them with oil. Bake them at 400 degrees for an hour, then cool them slightly. Next, cut the potatoes in half lengthwise. Leaving a quarter-inch shell, scoop out their pulp. Cut the skins in half lengthwise again, then cut them in half crosswise. Place the skins on a baking sheet, brush them with oil and bake again for five minutes. Combine the remaining ingredients. Remove the skins from oven and top them with the cheese mixture, then drizzle them with more oil. Bake the skins until the cheese is bubbly. The recipe makes 24 skins.
If you are trying to avoid getting anywhere near the kitchen for this party, there are plenty of places nearby that will make feeding a party-sized group of guests a lot easier. Order party food a few days in advance.
Head to Buffalo Wild Wings, 529 State St., and get their famous chicken wings for your party. Depending on the sauce, they can be messy, so be careful which flavors you order if your guests are potential wing-flingers. Prices are $20.99 for 50 wings and $39.99 for 100. BW-3 has tons of flavors, including teriyaki, sweet barbeque, smoky southwest, Caribbean jerk and spicy Thai. You can also choose from 12 different dipping sauces.
Or make a stop at Subway. Ring in the New Year with a 3-foot sandwich, which serves 12 to 13 people, for $29.99. Or if your plans are for a bigger shindig, the price for a 6-footer is $59.98-it serves 24 to 25. If you need more than that, prepare to shell out a lot of cash: The price goes up by $29.99 for each extra three feet.
A fun and tasty dessert you can arrange on a plate is the ubiquitous chocolate orange. Walgreens carries traditional and peppermint-chocolate oranges for $3.99 or 3 for $10. For the lazy host, there are even boxes with the slices already separated.
Activities
Good friends, good food and good music will only last so long. Eventually, guests will want to do other things to occupy themselves.
Many drinks will leave your guests rowdy, and surely they will want to remember the party's crazy antics. Buy several disposable cameras and place them around the party area. Instruct guests to take pictures of whatever they please and leave the cameras there for you to develop. You will get back some wild prints, and trading doubles will be a great excuse for another party.
Guests also love a good party game, so why not make it a drinking game? The usual classics such as ""Circle of Death"" and ""Asshole"" are out-try something brand new for the New Year. The Cardinal has a new drinking game for partygoers to try and it is sure to make your guests thirsty and entertained.
Sink & drink
Break into teams of three or four and fill a pitcher with beer. Place a shot glass in the beer so it floats at the top of the pitcher. Next, grab your favorite bottle of hard liquor. Alternating teams, each player must pour small amounts of the liquor into the floating shot glass. The first team to sink the shot glass must drink the entire pitcher of beer in five minutes in the following order:
1st team member-Raises the pitcher only once and drinks as much as they can, then passes it to the next person.
2nd team member-Does the same as the first team member, then passes to the final member.
3rd team member-Must finish the entire pitcher in the remaining time, or must drink another beer.
Follow these guidelines and your party will be the one everybody remembers-or doesn't remember.
