If there is one holiday that is celebrated all around the world, it is the New Year. The excitement around this holiday can lead to overspending. Can you give the new year the welcome it deserves without breaking the bank?
One thing you can do is take inspiration from the cultures all around the planet for a fresh beginning without going over budget. Here are ideas of lovely traditions you can add to your celebrations and still keep your expenses under control.
How many times have you been to the supermarket in the past two months? With so many celebrations, the grocery list for November and December can be intimidating. For New Year’s Eve, there is no need for a fancy, gourmet, and expensive dinner. Actually, all around the world, people eat humble dishes to wish for prosperity and abundance.
For example, in Asia, noodles are the first choice for this celebration because the long noodle strands represent longevity. In other places, like Italy, lentils are popular because they are shaped like coins and stand for abundance, prosperity and good luck. For the American South, the collard greens and black-eyed peas in New Year dishes double as symbols for sustenance and money.
New Year celebrations lend themselves to creating new traditions. You can take up some of the most popular traditions from other cultures and reinvent how you celebrate. Many people from Spain and South America eat twelve grapes in the last twelve seconds of New Year’s Eve. Every grape represents one wish for every month of the year.
Another unusual tradition is to write down your wishes on edible paper and burn them to incorporate the ashes into the spirit you chose for the midnight toast.
As they do in Greece, you can leave hidden treasures in food. For instance, you can hide an almond or a good fortune piece of paper inside pastry buns, desserts, and cakes, and whoever gets one will have plenty of luck in the year that’s starting.
Many prefer to spend New Year's outdoors. A very popular way of celebrating is building a bonfire. There are places where people write down their wishes and throw them to the fire to lock their intentions for the year to come. In South America, some countries burn figurines that stand in for the worst aspects of the past year to make way for the new.
One fun custom in South America is to pick a travel bag and run around the block carrying it. Doing so is supposed to bring traveling opportunities throughout the year. This unconventional tradition is fun and cost-free.
What is true for every culture is that people want to send off the past year and welcome the new surrounded by the people they love. So, instead of spending too much money, make it memorable by spending meaningful and fun time with your favorite people. Doing simple things like playing board games or watching fireworks may be enough and it is free. One thing you could do at your family gathering is to create a yearly family album or scrapbook with the best memories from the past year. You would have to print the photos beforehand and, on New Year’s Eve, you can spend reminiscing on those moments by pasting the photos and writing descriptions and reflections about your favorite experiences. Alternatively, you could turn reminiscing into a game by having everyone write down their funniest moments and then read them aloud and guess who wrote each anecdote.
Whatever you do, keep in mind that the New Year is a great opportunity to set goals and consider your plans for the future. This is also true for financial goals. That is why being creative instead of spending too much money on the celebrations is the soundest idea to begin a new year in your journey to financial security and ease of mind.