People fall into two camps when it comes to New Year’s Eve: they either love the celebration and splash out 100 quid on a ticket to a party at a really average bar, or they do something totally low-key – because what’s all the fuss about?
You’ve no doubt had some shockers of a New Year’s Eve before, too. Haven’t we all? Here, people share their very worst New Year’s Eve stories, including the one with unrequited love (sob), and of course, the one that ended up in A&E.
We might be staying at home this year – so enjoy reading these stories of life before the pandemic while cosied up on your sofa.
The One With The Deep Clean
“In 2016, I’d ended up with three different things to do on New Year’s Eve. I started with my stepdad and brothers, drinking their home-brewed beer, went on to my friend’s parents’ glitzy party at their freaking mansion, and ended up at a house party. I was wearing the new suede shoes my dad had given me for Christmas. They were really nice shoes and the night started fine, I had fun with my family, got to the second party around 10pm, celebrated New Year with them and about 1am, left for the third party where it all went downhill.
“My best friend immediately told me to ‘drink this’, which I did. Pretty quickly. Only later did I discover ‘this’ was a pint of 50/50 Jack Daniels and coke. I was gone. Within 15 minutes, I was curled up and sick all over the living room. On the new carpet. On my brand new shoes. It was a disaster. Someone had to take me home, I had to pay for a deep clean of the carpet and I spent the next two days in bed with the mother of all hangovers. As for the shoes, they had to be discreetly thrown away. Sorry, Dad.”
The One With The Unrequited Love
“I once went for a quick drink on New Year’s Eve with an on-again-off-again man that I was totally into, on the way to a party at a best friend’s. I ended up bailing on my lovely mates and spending the whole evening with the guy. At midnight I blurted out ‘I LOVE YOU’ and he said: ‘I love you, too.’ The next morning, as we lay in bed with the world’s worst hangover, he turned to me and said, ‘About that thing I said last night... I mean, I do love you, as a friend. But I don’t fancy you enough to love you romantically.’
“Obviously I was so crushed I spent the first two days of January in bed, alone in my shared flat because my flatmate was away. Predictably, I proceeded to waste my time with this guy again and again for the next year and a half before finally realising it was never going to happen.”
The One That Ended In A&E
“My worst New Year’s Eve was when I was 15 and my 16-year-old brother crashed my friend’s NY party. He got in a fight with a boy from another school who punched him with a ring on and split his whole forehead open. I had to call an ambulance and by the time the clock struck midnight, I was sitting in A&E watching my very inebriated brother have his face stitched up.”
The One On The Freezing Streets Of Norway
“My mates contacted me with a last-minute holiday idea as we hadn’t got anything arranged for New Year. They decided on Norway and ended up having an amazing night watching the fireworks at midnight, before hitting up a few bars till around 2am. We then faced the inevitable dilemma of where to stay. We should’ve booked a hotel the moment we got there, but our flight was delayed and we wanted to get on with celebrating as soon as possible.
“We visited eight hotels – they were all full. After two hours walking around in the cold, we headed to take the shuttle train to the airport, where we tried to nap but were asked to leave. So we went outside and slept on the floor outside the station. It was beyond ridiculous looking back, considering it was snowing and minus something crazy, but I woke up in a pile of snow, got up and took my flight home. We were all young once. Let’s just say I wouldn’t do it again!”
The One On The Roundabout
“When I was about 19, our group of friends couldn’t decide which of the two parties going on in our town we should go to. We finally made a decision, went there and realised we’d picked the wrong one. There were only about three people, awkwardly not talking, we weren’t allowed loud music because of the neighbours, and everyone looked like they were having the worst time. So we made our excuses at about 10.30pm and left. We thought we could walk to the next party but we went the complete wrong way. We got lost. We were freezing. We tried to find places to go to the loo on the walk. We had no cash for taxis. We ended up spending midnight on a roundabout in the rain. Shocking.”
The One In Chicken Cottage
“Most of my home friends went straight into work after sixth form and were earning decent salaries, while I was used to spending a tenner on a night out at uni, so imagine my horror when I heard our New Year’s Eve plan was a £100 ticket for an all-you-can-drink night in central London. Rather than sit home on my own, I agreed to the extortionate price tag (note: I don’t even spend that much going out now and I’m 30). Fast-forward to 10.30pm, we’d just got there and got a round of drinks in when the fire alarm went off. The entire place was evacuated and we weren’t allowed back in. So we headed to the Chicken Cottage nearby, which is where we obviously spent midnight.”
The One That Was A Family Disaster
“One of my worst, because it was so disappointing, was the year we hosted our families. Let’s say it was a series of ‘mishaps’. Our spare table broke, so we had to use my mother-in-law’s dog-grooming table for dinner. My sister-in-law was recovering from food poisoning so wasn’t eating the meal I’d prepared. She also wasn’t drinking and her mother compensated by drinking too much, broke one of my favourite wine glasses and cried. My nephews couldn’t sleep, so my brother-in-law spent the evening running up and down the stairs, shushing, rocking and reading. And my husband, blind to all of this, fell asleep before midnight. Thankfully my six-month-old was good as gold and slept all night.”
The One With The Bag Of Wine
“Four years ago I was doing my first New Year’s Eve in London for a while: the plan was pre-drinks at a friend’s house then going to a pub for midnight. In my drunken state, I decided to so some economising and take the bottle of wine I hadn’t drunk at pre-drinks to the pub with me (I don’t know what I thought I’d do with it when I got there... but anyway). As we stepped over the threshold and past the bouncers, someone walked into me and I dropped my tote bag (carrying the wine) on the floor and the whole thing smashed inside my bag and on me. It was red wine in a white tote bag that was now full of glass. Luckily the bouncers didn’t notice but I then proceeded to carry round the bag of glass to dispose of it somewhere. I don’t remember what I did end up doing with it...”
The One With The Unwanted Sleepover
“I’m sure people have worse than this, but my most mortifying New Year was when I got far too drunk and woke up with a guy next to me in bed. It wasn’t until he rolled over that I realised it was my brother’s best friend, who was 11 years younger than me and who I’d watched grow up. I ran out and genuinely we have never mentioned it since.”