Most of our family’s traditions come from my family. I think that’s because I’m the girl. But our New Year’s Tradition comes from my husband. And it is quite simple, and I’d like to share it with you.
Open the back door –
to let out all the bad luck.
Open the front door —
to let in the good luck.
The rest is optional, but we always:
Drink a toast to the New Year.
Kiss anyone who happens to be nearby – especially Cooper the dog who might not be there to kiss next year.
And hope for all the best for all we care about in the New Year.
This year I will have a new bunch to add to the list of those I care about – my new blogging buddies.
Happy New Year – may your good luck always be stronger than your bad.
FiftyFourandAHalf 
Pingback: Tradition! | FiftyFourandAHalf
Love that. I wish I had read this sooner. There’s always next year!
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I don’t think that there is a time limit. I’d try it any old time. The few times we traveled at New Years we just did it when we got home. Our luck those years wasn’t any worse then the years when we did it at the stroke of Midnight!
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No, I don’t live in downtown anywhere, but out here in the sticks in NoVA.
But you can always hire bodyguards to share in the festivities … or wait until daylight.
There is no time limit. I don’t think it really needs to be done at midnight. In fact, I think that it is a good practice to do it whenever you feel that the bad luck outweighs the good!
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Great tradition! You obviously don’t live in downtown Oakland. Then it would be in with the criminals, out with the flat screen.
Have a safe, great New Year!
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Pingback: One and Done #11 | JM Randolph, accidentalstepmom
Thanks, JM!
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Your New Year tradition sounds so much more renewing than the one in my family. We always make pigs in blankets and watch the Twilight Zone marathon. Nothing ushers in a new year and new hope like a 50 year old TV show and over processed meat. Traditions are traditions though. I may add your door opening trick to our tradition. If it doesn’t get rid of the bad luck, at least it will get rid of the hot dog smell.
Happy New Year!
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Hope it worked for you. I like the idea of the Twilight Zone marathon, although I’m not quite sure how it would differ from my regular life!
Happy 2012!
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I love the doors and your tradition.
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Thanks — the doors aren’t ours, though, sadly. They were the only pictures of open doors I could find!
The tradition, though, that’s ours. And yours if you want it.
Happy, you know!
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Thanks, and Happy 2012 to you my friend! And if you go to bed before the new year, you can always do this in the morning! There isn’t a time limit.
May the good luck always push the bad luck out your door!
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As I told you earlier, I think this is the greatest New Year’s Eve tradition I’ve ever heard. If I’m awake at midnight — and that seems unlikely — I will actually do it. Happy New Year, my friend — to you and John and Jacob and last but never least, COOPER!
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i like your tradition… but I suddenly wondered when you might be more than fifty-four-and-a-half?
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Ooh, in just a few weeks, actually. And I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the blog name. I may just stick with it, like 29 again only with cellulite and arthritis.
Happy New Year, Nancy! Hope you don’t end up at Cabella’s for their New Year’s Day sale.
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I vote for staying fifty-four-and-a-half forever.
I hope there’s no trip to Cabela’s…but we spent today prowling around used-car lots, my husband’s second-favorite past-time. If there’s more in store tomorrow, I will bring a book.
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If he’s like my husband, you’ll need to bring War and Peace :).
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What a fabulous tradition, best wishes for your 2012.
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Thanks PW — glad I could share it!
Happy New Year to you too!
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Hi,
Happy New Year, and all the best for 2012. 🙂
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And to you, Mags — one of my newer blogging buddies!
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I love this tradition. Maybe I can bear the cold air to let out all that bad luck?! Happy New Year to you!
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The cold air is especially good at pushing the bad luck out the back door, so go for it! You only need to keep the doors open for a tiny little while. Luck moves very quickly — good AND bad!
Happy New Year, Darla!
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I’m so doing this … Happy New Year 🙂
MJ
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It’s easy and cheap — and yours if you want it! Happy New Year, MJ!
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Traditions that sure will bring luck, love and joy for 2012. Happy New Year!
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Thanks, IT — and of course, Happy New Year!
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Awww…you remember Cooper as we remember our sil’s Zena. She’ll be 15 and we’re treasuring the memories now. Love your open the front door/back door tradition. Thank you for the smiles, your take on things, the connections we make through this writing habit. A toast to wishing you all good luck in 2012! Happy New Year! And shoo, shoo bad luck!
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You too, Georgette — shoo, shoo bad luck. Welcome in the good!
Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year!.
Hopefully great things are in store. And if not, I’ll get them off the internet.
Would it be too forward to say I really want that front door, plants, lights, porch and probably the whole damn house it comes with?
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Great things are available where ever you can find them, unless you get caught.
You are welcome to that front door cause it isn’t mine. I couldn’t get a good one of mine and these are SO much nicer!
Happy New Year, Lorre!
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Thanks. I’ll take it.
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It seems to me that you would create quite a draft when you open both front and back doors. Good luck might then possibly be swept through the house, never to find root. But then again, I tend to overthink. Maybe I’ll drink that toast now. Why wait? Happy New Year!
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Hope you are happily along celebrating a draft-free New Year’s! But the draft can be a short as you want it to be — or as long. Weather conditions usually determine that!
Happy New Year, Doc!
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