Some of us stay up till midnight to ring in the New Year and some of us don’t. And the general pattern of the New Year life cycle is a seemingly common one.
When we are very young, try as we might, the odds of making it to midnight on New Year’s Eve are against us. A little older and perhaps none the wiser, staying up until midnight is not only easy, but also fun! Welcome a baby or two into the family and nothing is worth losing precious sleep over. After a few more years, staying up for the countdown – however physically possible – often feels far too overrated. Then comes a point when it starts getting harder and harder to make it to midnight even when we want to.
Few are the years in life when making it to midnight on New Year’s Eve is both possible and practical. This might be why these midday mock-midnight New Year’s Eve-Day parties are catching on.
At midday at the stroke of 12:00 pm, there were at least two places in the Tri-Town holding a celebratory space for the populations that find it the hardest to stay awake to welcome the New Year: those who’ve experienced the fewest years, and those who’ve racked up the most.
At the Elizabeth Taber Library on December 31, Children’s Librarian Rosemary Grey welcomed the youngest partygoers to a festive gathering in the children’s room with party hats and tiaras, horns, prize poppers, cookies, and a little bubbly apple juice for a “pretend it’s midnight” party.
“Come on in; we’re having a party!” said Grey as she welcomed the steady trickling-in of guests.
It was an intimate assembly of half-a-dozen little girls and their parents and grandparents who enjoyed some coloring, puzzles, snacks, and some books, of course.
After a few first lessons in celebratory horn blowing, everyone gathered around the big screen for a visual countdown to the start of the unofficial 2020 New Year.
Over in Rochester, the Council on Aging hosted its annual New Year’s Eve-Day party at the Senior Center where guests enjoyed their own version of a mock-midnight party with Chinese takeout, a round of non-alcoholic bubbly, and a barrage of noisemaker clatter all their own.
By Jean Perry