It’s been years since I did a big, bang up New Year’s Eve. In fact, not since the time that John, Jacob and I not only broke a Guinness Book of World Records but did not die a fiery death have I done anything terribly exciting for New Years. Times Square in diapers holds no attraction for me.
But still, it is a time to celebrate. And so I will let you in on a wonderful, yet dirt-cheap way to ring out the old and ring in the new. Or is that “Bring”?
Damn, I haven’t even opened the champagne yet.
OK, here’s what you do:
On the stroke of midnight,
Open the back door –
to force 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 and everyone who happens to be nearby
- Hope for all the best for all we care about in the New Year.
This year I will of course add to family and flesh friends a wish the happiest, healthiest of new years to all my blogging buddies.
Happy New Year – may your good luck always be stronger than your bad.
***
Yup, this is a re-tread. I will probably post it next year, too.
FiftyFourandAHalf 
I think we did this when I was a girl. I don’t remember there being any reason for it except eight antsy kids at midnight. I just remember someone yelling to shut the doors. There may have been some banging of pots too. The poor dog! Have a year of good luck, good cheer and good company!
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Happy New Year Elyse, just getting around to some of my reading (can you tell). I kissed my dog and my two cats. Does that count?
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Absolutely! I kissed Duncan too. Family is family, loved ones are loved ones, regardless of hair.
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Happy New Year to you! Looking forward to your stories and comments during 2015…Can’t wait.
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And yours! You seem to have picked up the blogging bug again!
Happy New Year to one of my first blogging buddies!
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I went from holding down two jobs to three jobs and my creativity was buried under fatigue. Since additional free time was not going to magically appear, I decided not to let time constraints keep me from blogging anymore. Not a resolution, just a need for a creative outlet. We will see how this goes…
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It’s funny — whenever I am most busy I tend to blog MORE for exactly that reason. The next three months are going to be insane at work, so apparently I will be in the sphere a lot! (I do read less than usual when things are nuts, though.)
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Happy New Year, Elyse! Warm wishes to you & yours for 2015.
I’ll be opening up the place at midnight; the only through-and-through we get here is with our windows, but they’re as big as doors in our part of town so I think that’ll do 🙂 Out with the old, in with the good!
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Keep posting it until I remember to do it! Happy New Year.
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For my part, that’s easier than thinking up something new to say! HAPPY NEW YEAR, Michelle!
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Since we’re under a severe wind chill advisory (-25 to -30? No thank you) I’m pretty sure we’ll be skipping the open door tradition, but one of our friends taught us to climb up on a chair and jump into the new year. Long as I’m not too drunk, that should be pretty safe.
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Brrrrrrr. Hopefully you will be warm, dry and sober enough not to hurt yourself! Cheers!
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Recycling is a good way to start the year. Less waste, etc. 🙂
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True. I’m an environmentalist from way back. Especially with my blog posts of the Holiday season!
Happy New Year to you!
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Happy, happy New Year! It’s like a crisply wrapped present, just waiting for you to tear into it. Hope you open yours to find whatever is the Red Rider BB Gun of your dreams.
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Thanks, Peg! And may 2015 find you without your tongue stuck to a pole … (oh, and good health and happiness, too 😉 )
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I haven’t heard of that tradition, but I like it. Tossing you a cyber toast for a wonderful New Year Elyse! Here’s hoping your good luck hangs around and only the bad slips out the back!
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Thanks, Renee. You too!
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This will be our plan as well! Happy New Year to you and your lovely family too! Maybe you could wear the construction cone as a party hat … hehehe
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Great idea, tops! Perhaps i should invest in several!
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Happy New year!
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Thank you for the very cheering tip. I hope you have a lovely time on New Years Eve and a very happy 2015 🙂
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Love this, Elyse. Thanks for opening up the doors for me. I appreciate the luck!
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Sure thing! Happy New Year!
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That’s such a cool idea! I’m going to do it this year (assuming I’ll be awake at midnight!)
Happy New Year!
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It’s actually my husband’s tradition, but I love it. And since I’m making the rules, you can do it in the morning if you can’t stay up.
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You know, monasteries have kept many women on the better side of uthe good/bad luck equation, keeping all those monks busy.
Glad you’re gonna try out the doors, but i wouldn’t worry your pretty head about ebola. It’s hardly in the news anymore since the election ended. But no smoochin’ in 2016!
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Thanks for the tips, Elyse! Coincidentally, I have decided today to turn a new leaf and become a cheapskate. I think it will be the healthiest thing for me, especially if I live to be old and need funds to live on.
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Yup. Those pennies add up. Happy New Year!
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Happy New Year!
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Thanks, Gibber! Same to you!,
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Thank you!
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When I say this post, I had to get right on over here. This is doable. Believe I’m touring a monastery during the day. I’ll head back home and do the door thing later. I won’t be kissing everybody though, Ebola’s catching, so be careful and wear your rubber lips for that one.
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Oh no, my comment to you appeared below Gibbers. That is not a good sign.
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I’m not opening the back door. What if I still have unused good luck left over from 2014?
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Block it off first
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I’m pretty sure that good luck rises to the top and hovers, while the bad oozes out the door. So you can have it all, X. At least while i make up the rules.
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Happy new year. I love your money-wise celebrations. Party hard with your doors and don’t forget to scrub the front door threshold before midnight ready for the first-footers. 🙂
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I’ve made a deal with the powers that be. They find a cure for Crohn’s, I’ll scrub. It’s a Faustian bargain.
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Happy New Year Elyse!
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Thanks, Mae. Back at Cha!
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We’re expecting a particularly chilly New Year’s Eve, but that won’t stop me from pushing the bad luck out the back door, and swinging the front door wide open to let in all that good luck! Hope you get plenty of the good stuff in the New Year. Have some fun, smile a little, and maybe, even, get silly. Someone has to. 🙂
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Go for it, 99. And I’m wishing you a whole lot of good luck in 2015. So open those doors up WIDE — but careful of the doggies!
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I will definitely try the door thing this New Year’s Eve. My mother and step-father are staying with us, and after the horrible year she’s had with her surgical complication, I’m sure they’ll both welcome bidding a big fat adieu to bad luck.
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I hope it works for you and them. I’m not sure it improves my Crohn’s any though. Unless of course i consider how it might be! Happy New Year, Carrie. To you and the gang.
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Have a great New Year and don’t get too cold with all those open doors!
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I’ll wear my muff! Happy New Year!
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We had a similar tradition, but someone would come in through the front door with silver (5p piece), food (biscuit) and heat ( a piece of coal), so that you would never be poor, hungry or cold throughout the New Year.
Enjoy your celebrations.
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That sounds great! I hope you have some fun, too.
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We have to open doors??? Sheesh.
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At least you’re not going to freeze to death if you do that.
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I do have that going for me
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It’s harder in some places than in others.
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I bet
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Happy new year to you and yours, Elyse!
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And you, Guap! I hope you and TMWGITU are happy and healthy. And also that I didn’t mess up the acronym.
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Times Square sucks. I speak from experience, not theory.
Re-treads are okay when they’re this good. Happy New Year! Make a wish…
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Thanks, Mark! Retreads are also good when there are new kids on the block.
I would, personally rather die than go to Times Square for New Years. Wild, wild horses …
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It took me all of :20 minutes to get separated from my group. I spent the rest of the evening alone and freezing my ASS OFF.
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That sounds horrible. And then with security precautions there aren’t even porta-poties. Nope. Nope. Nope!
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Have a happy new year, Elyse! I celebrate by letting my 10-year-old stay up later than I manage. I haven’t seen midnight for many years, but I really enjoy waking up in my own bed, not hungover or tired. Cheapest party ever.
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Brave woman, Michelle. You never know what might happen! Happy New Year!
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I like that. Never a big party animal on this day. I’ve been to a few and would much rather stay home and fan out evil spirits.
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Glad to help! This year, I’m thinking of reversing the doors so that the good luck comes in the back instead of the front to increase the odds of it working.
Happy new year to you!
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Happy New Year! Such a great post. 🙂
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Thanks, VD! Happy New Year to you too. Hope you’re not on call!
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Nope! Off for a few weeks. Woohoo!
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At least this year there won’t be any snow blowing in those open doors!
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True! Happy New Year, Kate! Don’t let those kitties escape!
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Not a chance!
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Happy New Year, Elyse! May the year bring you joy and laughter and adventure.
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Thanks, Dina! You too!
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