AIBU to ask why people hate NYE so much?

[Kat256M]

Maybe not hate as such but people are just done with the festive spirit after the 26th. I am not British so it seems weird to me, we always used to celebrate NYE more than Christmas, the big family gathering is usually on January 1st.

Is it just that everyone is over it by then? Or because there seems to be more pressure on Christmas dinner? Just curious really.

This exactly!

Also if you've seen a lot of NYE then it loses its appeal. Many years ago pre DC and even DH, I went out every NYE. Old now and cannot be bothered leaving my sofa and tv. We saw plenty of people over the Christmas period and will likely go out or do something on New Year's Day.

Where in Scotland are you, that's quite unusual tbh...not typical for most in Scotland.

I'm also Scottish & used to love Hogmanay! So much hope for the new year & bringing it in with friends and family, the people you love. Now it makes me really sad, I feel so far away from the people I have lost & it always makes me cry. Which is silly as every day is further away really but life doesn't seem as exciting and hopeful as it once did I suppose. When I was younger there used to be street parties & you would toast it with all the neighbours etc but I suppose now there's less community spirit. And as a PP said, Auld Lang Syne, while a beautiful song, makes me really sad now.

Hogmanay is great fun in your late teens and early 20s when it's all about partying, clubbing, going to the pub with your friends and sleeping till 4pm on the 1st.

Once you've moved past that stage, it's just another night in the year.

Personally, a new year beginning isn't full of hope. It's full of new chances for things to go wrong, the world to self destruct & loved ones to die.

Rationally, I know that one day doesn't change the chance of any of this but I can't help dreading the new year all the same.

It's not even depression or adult cynicism. I've felt this way for always, or as long as I can remember anyway.

How long have you been in UK? Try to celebrate a few years as a local with work parties, Christmas lunches, Christmas jumper days, nativity plays, carol singings, visits to Santa grotto, family gatherings since the middle of November and you will know the answer.
You celebrated on the 1st but how much was done before then and who did it, that’s the question and if you were a child it’s a very different perspective.

There's a pressure to it. Have to be having a great time, have to stay up. Feel bad if you go out cos it's busy and pushy shovey and feel crap and lonely if stopping in. I didn't used to mind until the year 2000 when the need to be doing something special really hit home. Anyway we've got into a rhythm with friends now and have done dinner and a games night for the last few years that started over zoom in COVID. It's ok. Last year it seemed to get to midnight very quickly. Hoping for the same again!!

The pressure to have the best night of the year. But not actually having a big friend group to celebrate it with

2023 hasn't been a good year for me. I will be staying up and making sure it has gone this year!

On the whole though, im more of a samhain new year person most years.

It’s crap. January is an awful month and goes on forever. There’s an extra day of winter in 2024; why can’t we have an extra day in June??

It’s a huge anti climax. Hated it when I worked in pubs; a lot of the regulars used to visit family or have parties at home. NYE always had the feeling it could kick off at any second, whereas Christmas Eve was a lovely atmosphere and my favourite time to work.

Everything costs more, is crowded and the 31st is an excuse to drink too much too early and be an arse. It's not fun.

I've never seen any point either (other than the bank holiday off work!). One day doesn't change anything, everyone is the same on January 1st as they were December 31st, no problems are magically fixed.

Appreciate everyone has different associations so if you enjoy it then go for it, but leave the fireworks out.

I feel exactly the same. Also feel like this when looking through the calendar for the year. Like "what bad thing will have happened by September".

I know that's so negative and depressing but I've had so many things go wrong in the last few years I can't help but wait for the next thing. Its a horrible way to live but I don't know how not to feel like that.

Exactly this. I howled like no human you've ever heard at that the turn of 2020/2021 because my DS2 was stillborn in June 2020 and I felt like I was leaving him behind again, just like when I left the hospital without him, walked away from his coffin at the funeral home, walked out the crematorium knowing he would never be whole again. Exactly the same feeling. Not logical exactly but very real.

I'm Scottish too and it was a huge deal when I was younger, it just doesn't feel the same anymore.

I love NYE. Usually spend earlier part of day with adult DCs, they pop over for a while then go off to do their own thing. Then its long cackling reminiscing phone calls with my mates, during which DP hides away upstairs playing music or watching documentaries with his headphones on. Later we go out to a Dinner & Dance just us 2, although normally his friends and 1 or 2 of mine are there. Usual crowd nice friendly fun night. New Years Day is the one for lying around almost inert. Nice food, drinks (although we're not big drinkers), music and films. Sometimes in the night we'll take a drive up to top of the hill with lovely views over town, and just sit there and chat about any and everything

I wouldn’t say I hate NYE but I have usually found that turning it into a big night out usually ends in an anticlimax and a sense of dissappointment.

i think most British people have had the experience of shelling out a vast amount of money to go to a bar or club for NYE where it’s been overcrowded, horrendously overpriced and full of obnoxiously drunk or drugged up people. And then had to pay about four times over the standard rate and wait hours for a cab home.

It’s usually too noisy and crowded to actually speak to people or dance and unless you are really drunk it’s just a weird, tense experience. And the loos are always backed up for miles and everything is expensive and inconvenient.

It gets really old quickly and after the age of about 17 is no fun at all.

The NYEs I have had which have been fun have involved small gatherings of friends who have chosen to be with one another at someone’s house (or occasionally somewhere in an Airbnb) with nice food and booze and no pressure to have an “amazing” time.

It just rarely lives up to the hype and the lower your expectations are the more you tend to get out of it.

It's the marking of time and of hope .

I don't mind having a little social gathering at home with some nice food and drink.

But I don't need to hear loads of fireworks and boozy people roaming the streets.

Enforced fun. You could never get to the bar or get a taxi home. The pubs would charge you to listen to a shit DJ and an awful buffet. There was ALWAYS a fight too. The bloody fireworks annoy me now, I need to keep the cats in with a plug in and they used to wake the baby up and set the massive dogs off over the road. Grumble Grumble.

I'm so glad you asked-
*I wasn't brought up celebratingmost things new year so I feel a bit awkward
*I'm a massive introvert anyway so don't want to count down with randoms
*Ive always found any new year and/or fresh start things very depressing
*I find the expectations to do/buy/feel anything for new year annoying I don't want to be asked "what did you do for new years?" "I was asleep but teen left washing up from last year"
*so I just ignore it then get FOMO
*teen will go out but find it hard to get back so I'll be woken up

Oh and I can't stand Jools Holland.

It's a night in for us. We're in Scotland and suffer the excruciating scottish TV tartan tat show each year just to see if Jackie Bird falls over pissed one year (it'll never happen, she's a total professional).

We went to Princes Street in Edinburgh the last year it was a free for all, before they limited numbers and it was the most terrifying experience of my life. I fell over and only someone grabbing my jacket stopped me being crushed. I lost my friends (pre cheap mobiles, so once separated, that was it) and walked 4 miles home alone as there were no taxis about. Got in at 5am ish, frozen and soaked and cried solidly for the next full day. It was traumatic. Jackie Bird is as exciting as it gets for me now.

Love it, real community spirit here.
A walk into the centre, drinks and food, cathedral service and procession to the market square, live music, countdown and fireworks.
We always share a bottle of champagne in the square, then all walk home together.

New Years Eve Conversations Every Year

I spent a few years wondering what the point was, but now I love it. That extra celebration after Christmas, the light and happiness before going back to work, a chance to socialise with friends whether that’s out or at home (Christmas is very much dedicated to family). I also love watching the London fireworks on the TV at midnight.

We’ve got loads of nice food and bubbly in. I just can’t be miserable about it. Who knows what this year will bring, let’s at least be happy at the start.