A Special New Year’s Eve Just for You

The Cambridge Dictionary definition of the word "party" is as follows: a social event at which a group of people meet to talk, eat, drink, dance, etc., often in order to celebrate a special occasion.

That's so 2019.

This New Year's Eve, redefine parties. Who says you can only have fun in the presence of people? If you're an introvert, you're probably nodding in affirmative. If you're an extrovert, allow me to prove to you that yes, it's possible to throw a party for a single person.

GUEST LIST

Since the host and the guest of the party is the same person, you can cross this one out. Of course, your annoying siblings will try to freeload. Your challenge will be to make sure that this is your party, thrown only for yourself. One successful tactic is to lock yourself up in your room. People will obviously knock insistently and try to ruin the mood, but they'll get bored soon and give up.

DECOR

The ideal location for your party is your own room or anywhere you like to spend time alone, preferably indoors. The theme and decoration is entirely up to you, but please, do the bare minimum of cleaning the area. If you want to be basic, just blow a leftover balloon from a previous birthday and have it floating around. If you want to go the extra mile, any kind of fancy lighting will come in handy, whether it's a strobe light or fairy lights. While you're at it, add confetti and streamers too.

FOOD AND DRINKS

This quarantine should have given you ample opportunities to experiment with recipes, or at least the chance to develop your culinary skills. If not, now is the time to try! Remember, since you're the host, you're also in charge of the food. Instead of whole three-course meals, prepare some snacks to munch on through the night. These might include popcorn, chicken nuggets or brownies. If you can't go into the kitchen without risking burning down the house, choose any dry snacks of your liking, such as store-bought cookies, puffed rice or chanachur. Make sure you have a few options for soft drinks, because what's a party without them?

ENTERTAINMENT

Don't use this as an excuse to set up a group call with all your friends. You can do this the next day. If you have a Bluetooth speaker, turn it up to dance or to curl up in the corner to your favourite tunes, provided it's not "The Final Countdown". No need to play that song, because your neighbours will do it for you when the clock strikes midnight. If you're not in the mood for music, you can always start binging that Netflix series you've been putting off for months. Before you know it, you'll start off another year in the sole company of your own self.

Whatever you choose to do, wish others with caution when the time comes because you know where the overly optimistic wishes got us after last December 31st.

Adhora Ahmed tries to make her two cats befriend each other, but in vain. Tell her to give up at adhora.ahmed@gmail.com