Keep it SIMPLE! That’s our advice for celebrating the New Year.

You can make the night special without creating a fuss.

Start things popping with sparkling wine or champagne.  Pick up a small carton of fresh raspberries or cranberries. Drop one in the bottom of the champagne flute and you have a specialty drink!

To make things really sparkle – stir a little cranberry juice in the bubbly and call it a poinsettia!

10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1!

DECORATIONS

• Less is MORE!  Ask everyone to bring a battery operated alarm clock (or set their cell phones with a fun ring tone for an alarm)   Place the clocks all over the party area or a collection on a mirrored tray as a centerpiece. You know what happens at midnight – you’ve got ‘live’ music just like Times Square.
• Make a quick centerpiece by placing glittering ball ornaments in a wire basket or crystal bowl.

Fun Serving Ideas

• Use hollowed-out colorful bell peppers, cabbage, squash or round bread loaves for fun and colorful containers to hold veggie dip.

• Add a little swag to your glasses! Tie a little metallic curly ribbon to the stems!  A different color of ribbon for each guest can keep drinkware from being misplaced.

• Bump up plain coffee served with dessert to an inviting espresso bar! Set up espresso carafes (regular and decaf) with extras for stir-ins and toppers.

Stir-Ins: flavored syrups, flavored creams or eggnog, cream and sugar

Toppers: whipped cream, ice-cream toppings, candy sprinkles, ground nutmeg or cinnamon

TOASTS (not so Trivial!)

Pour out some trivia to stir things up.

• Did you know the name ‘champagne’ is copyrighted? Only wine produced in the Champagne region of France can be called Champagne.
• Everything is considered sparkling by using the method champenoise.
• How many bubbles are in one bottle of champagne?  49 million
• Under pressure – The pressure in a champagne bottle is three times higher than in an automobile tire.
• Tub time!  American actress Marilyn Monroe is believed to have taken a champagne bath. That would require about 350 bottles of the good stuff!
• How fast does a cork travel?  Try 38-40 miles per hour. It pops out as fast as 100 mph then slows down!