6 Personal Rituals on The Last Day of The Year
Conspiring with the Universe on New Year's. Plus, a new ATA Playlist AND the final giveaway of our Month of Gifts:)
⚠️ LAST CHANCE: In the spirit of giving and getting very good things this month, all NEW annual Paid subscriptions to A Tiny Apt. are 40% off. That means a huge glittery✨ chunk of our tiny, wonderful world is up for grabs for just $30. More thrifting, more design discovery + (mini) makeover magic, more life lessons on doing a lot with a little…come join us🧡🔥
Before I had a child, I used to host an annual New Year’s party in our Brooklyn Heights apartment. Four or five years in a row, with the same group of friends, and despite the “quaintness” of our mini living room, it always became the place where six, seven, ten of us would come together, dancing our faces off as one year ended and a new one began.
I love these memories…how anointing our home annually with so much love and talking/toasting/burning wishes became its own kind of ritual. Even though it was chaos and days of prep (as well as clean up), it was exactly where I wanted to be + who I wanted to be with. And, not only the most convenient city spot when it was cold and crazy outside…but also, the most sacred.
I still prefer to spend New Year’s at home, and, occasionally, there is some dancing, but these days my partner is mostly a person in kindergarten and everyone is (giddily) in bed by 10 p.m. I still delight in festooning wood platters and vintage trays with all manner of fancy cheese + briny snack things, as well as making a vegetarian lasagna (which assures excellent leftovers on the first few days of the year…another good “omen”). While the mood might be (way) more chill, the intention is the same: to honor— in whatever totally personal/beloved/imperfect way—a year of work, life, and any tiny triumph that felt even remotely like a WIN.
Photo by Jen Steele.
For a lot of folks, going out for New Year’s is a THING…invitations to consider, company to conspire with…and the shiny + sparkly getting ready part can be such a treat/tradition, too. But making the choice to stay home is also A Thing (rhinestone earrings look just as good with that spectacularly distressed + cozy vintage sweatshirt). And, over the years I’ve found ways to ritualize this yearly plan of essentially doing “nothing” by doing something…fairly easy and also extremely satisfying. Well, five or six things (give or take) that invite me or you or anyone to stand in this very brief + magical in-between place—the bridge between what was and what IF...
In the past, when I might have partied more (fun + wild, as it was), I might have also missed that moment—to properly say goodbye to a year of LIFE, even if everything I wanted to happen didn’t exactly come to pass, the seeds were still sewn. And in a strange way, New Year’s is like this tap on the shoulder…reminding me why those seeds matter. How we got to this place and the choices we get to make about what could blossom next.
Lest we not forget that New Year’s at home is also very much about indulging your creature comforts. The stuff that makes you feel safe and loved and fortified. Because a day’s worth of pleasure sans any expectation is IMHO an act of true love…giving it AND receiving it, whether you’re with friends/family or very happily solo (I have deeply loved both:). During this tiny pause at the start of the year, we get to turn inward and revisit that contract with ourselves—what gets our time/attention/ENERGY right now and in the months ahead and what does not. I’d like to think these six steps/ideas below are a warm-up for just such an exercise…in getting clear while also getting to the good stuff to come. Six things that always always ALWAYS get me in the mood for some MAGIC. Self-made. And totally free🔑.
[*Link to a new A Tiny Apt. playlist “Let’s Begin” and our Bags In Progress Micro Tote giveaway after the jump❤️.]
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