Your Printer and Celebrating the New Year

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year! It comes every year, and you have decided to be the life of the party by volunteering to have the party. You have many options to choose from.

Will you “rock and roll all night”? Family fun and frivolity that kids of all ages can enjoy? Simple foods, like hotdogs, hamburgers, cookies, pretzels, popcorn, and chips and dip, are generally preferred to fancier foods just due to the general party environment. Don’t forget, while you’ll need plenty of champagne for the adults to toast with, you’ll also need some sparkling cider so the kids can join in too. Tip: make sure that you make the trash can very visible to avoid mass pickup of empty plates and cups from every empty surface of your home. Try passing the time with card games, board games, twister tournaments, or even a great movie, especially if the movie is related to New Year’s. It is also a lot of fun to leave out a few disposable cameras for random people to take photographs during the night.

You might prefer to run a sophisticated dinner party for a few of your close friends instead? A great way to contribute to the mood is through warm candlelight combined with smooth Jazz. You could certainly meet the challenge of preparing a multiple course meal. To take advantage of the entire night, you could start with cocktails. Then you could move on to appetizers, then to soups or salads, then through the main course, and all the through to the desert. If you really want to go all out, include sorbet or some other palate cleanser between courses. While drinks can be based on guests’ preferences, it would be best to serve wine with dinner (as long as it suits the main course) and to have champagne for the toast. Of course, you should watch Times Square so you can see the ball drop, especially if it means that you’ll get a midnight kiss.

Whatever theme you choose for your gathering, your printer and a few printer supplies can help make your night one to remember and super easy. Here’s how:

– Start at the very beginning with invitations! You can either pick out a template online or simply create your own.Google this: New Year’s free party invitations. Remember that invitations should go out 2 – 2 1/2 weeks in advance, people usually make plans early on for the New Year. You probably know best if the paper you have is good enough or if you should buy special paper.

- Party favors. You probably had no idea that there are free templates for practically any party favor you can think of that are just an internet search away? You can print out party hats, foldable favor bags, novelty candy bar wrappers, 2011 silly glasses that your guests can wear and yes even wraps for noisemakers to ring in the New Year. A couple specialized printer supplies might be required, but it will be worth it in the end!

- If the formal dinner soiree is more your style, with the right printer supplies, you can print place cards, dinner menus, napkin wraps, champagne bottle wrappers and even flute glass charms.
– Decorations can be surprisingly simple, even something like mini-posters printed on normal-sized sheets of paper that say “Happy New Year”! Or you can use Microsoft Word to spell out “Happy New Year 2011” in huge letters (1 letter per 8 1/2X11 sheet), cut them out and connect them together with brads or tie with ribbon and hang up your banner for all to enjoy!

If you use your printer supplies and create great, unique accessories for the party, the guests will keep talking about it even after they leave! Careful, though, you might be asked to host the New Year’s party more often. Happy Holidays!