+ 5 tips for you who want to celebrate New Year somewhere in Europe
There’s the Queen’s New Year’s Speech… the festive dinner, the marzipan cake, and the fireworks at midnight. And then there’s also the Danish Radio girls’ choir singing “Vær velkommen… while the champagne pops… the fireworks roar, and we hug each other and wish each other a ‘Happy New Year!'” That’s New Year’s in Denmark… but what about when you celebrate New Year’s somewhere in Europe?
We have several times turned our noses abroad for New Year’s and have become quite fond of spending our New Year’s Eve under foreign stars… or fireworks.
For the past 14 years, we have celebrated our New Year in 8 cities in Europe (in addition to Denmark, of course). Palma, Reykjavik, London, Madrid, Faro, somewhere in the mountains in Tenerife, Barcelona, and most recently – Amsterdam.
Each place has had its own touch, which has made our New Year’s Eve something very special.
When the world expands
Denmark is lovely! The Queen is as she should be, as is the dinner, the good company, the marzipan cake, the champagne, and the fireworks at midnight. And Denmark’s Radio girls’ choir…
But… sitting out in the world, wherever it may be, gives me a sense of being part of something bigger. New Year’s is a wave from Fiji across the globe, and when I celebrate New Year’s out in Europe, I feel like I become a part of it.
So I expand the boundaries from being part of a party at home, with friends, family, the street, the neighborhood, and yes… the rest of Denmark, to reaching out to the whole world.
Then I feel small and humble. But in a really nice way.
The whole world starts anew
I absolutely love sitting at a Spanish café and drinking my morning coffee outdoors – in sunshine.
I love feeling life – even on January 1st.
And it’s here that I feel hope.
Every year, when I reach this time, I start to stir inside, feeling the wheel of the year pause for a moment.
The darkness and cold draw over the winter days like a heavy blanket.
Even though New Year’s is celebrated at the same latitudes, it’s as if I momentarily draw aside the blanket and make way for something new.
It simply gets the wheels turning again.
The new…
But what about New Year’s traditions?
To be completely honest, we didn’t think we were so attached to traditions back home. However, we found that the way we like to ring in the New Year feels more festive in many ways when we incorporate traditions.
The Queen’s New Year’s Speech and the changing of the guard. I must admit, I watch the New Year’s speech… if I can! Either on the laptop or on my phone.
And then there are other traditions we seek out. For example, we somehow manage to prepare a nice dinner with red wine and preferably champagne to pop at midnight. Or maybe some marzipan cake (kransekage) – or whatever the country or city we’re visiting has to offer.
Sometimes we also stumble upon a restaurant that serves a delicious New Year’s menu.
But otherwise… we let it come – whatever comes. Not knowing how the evening will unfold adds something unique to the night.
5 tips for celebrating New Year’s somewhere in Europe
- Be open to changes in your plans. We are always completely open to the New Year unfolding on the terms of the country and the place. There might be fireworks, there might not. They might celebrate it heavily, they might not.
- Create your own New Year wherever you are. Sometimes we’ve dined at restaurants with other guests. We’ve also sat in a stone hut in Tenerife without any festivities around us, except the celebration we created ourselves. Each celebration has felt truly unique.
- Stock up so you have what you need for a cozy/festive/solemn evening – or whatever you prefer. Sometimes we’ve crafted festive meals from the simplest purchases, but we’ve also gone all out at other times.
- Check the opening hours of the place and make sure you have food and drinks for the days when the area’s shops are closed. We’ve experienced many places where everything shuts down for 1-3 days after New Year’s Eve.
- Let yourself be carried away. New Year’s can be so simple and beautiful. Like standing on a mountain and looking out over the vast landscape, as we experienced it in Tenerife. Or New Year’s can be a street party with happy and excited people – as we experienced in Madrid, London, and Reykjavik. And New Year’s can be a quiet evening, with deep thoughts, good food, and an overcast sky in the mountains north of Barcelona.
Be present where you are
Our New Year’s Eve in Faro was a different New Year’s Eve for us. My father had passed away two months earlier, and I was pregnant, in the 5th month with Sebastian. The evening was mixed. Grief and happiness mingled in an internal crosscurrent, and I didn’t quite know what to do with myself.
That night, I didn’t feel the champagne and New Year’s as I had in other years. Instead, it was on this New Year’s Eve that I felt the first little bubbles in my belly. Signs that I had a baby growing inside me.
New Year’s is what you make of it, where you are in life, and New Year’s is what you hope and wish for.
I love traveling for New Year’s; it always pushes the boundaries – just a little bit… more.
Where have you experienced your best New Year’s Eve?
