53 New Year’s Eve Recipes For Eating & Drinking The Night Away

This New Year’s Eve, take some stress off your plate and ditch dinner in lieu of party food like dips, appetizers, desserts, and cocktails. It'll cut down on the mess of forks and knives without sacrificing good eats, and leave you more room for what’s important—celebrating having made it through another year! We’ve included 53 of our favorite party foods for you here, including some fun spins on ones guaranteed to bring you good luck this year (12 boozy grapes at midnight, here we come ??).

What kind of food you serve this New Year’s really depends what kind of party vibe you’re going for. Are you having more of a wine-and-cheese-style soirée? Go for our cornbread stuffed mussels, our bacon-wrapped dates, our black-eyed pea bruschetta, or our bagna cauda. They’re all just a little bit fancier than your average fare, perfect for serving to dressed up guests.

Throwing more of a relaxed get-together, everyone in comfies watching those suckers freezing their butts off at the ball drop in Times Square? Serve up classic crowd-pleasers, like nachos or a cheesy dip, but with a little good luck spin. Try our pulled pork nachos or sausage rolls (pork represents progress); our pretzel ring beer cheese dip or our pretzel bites (pretzels for prosperity); or our chili cheese dip or our cheesy mini meatball skillet dip (serve these with golden cornbread for wealth).

Looking for something in the middle? Try the high-low approach, where you utilize nicer ingredients in approachable ways. Check out our mushroom “calamari”, our baked brie wreath, our fondue bites, or our spicy ahi tuna nachos to see what we’re talking about. They're a little of of the ordinary, but not so much so as to seem like you tried too hard.

And don’t forget drinks! We included a few of our top contenders here, like our holiday punch or our Champagne margaritas, but check out even more New Year’s drink ideas here too.