New Year’s Eve food is my favorite kind of food, for many, many reasons.
- It’s the day before the diet, so anything goes.
- You’re staying up extra late, which means you will naturally have to eat more anyway.
- Dinner is out the window and six hours of grazing is on the table.
- The spread is primarily appetizers, finger foods, and desserts, which happen to be my three favorite food groups! Ha.
Since having kids, all of my New Year’s Eves have been spent at home with my kids.
Truth be told, I far prefer these kinds of evenings over going out to a party.
I can put on my PJs, watch the fun New Year’s Eve shows uninterrupted by other adults trying to have conversations, and I am spending a special moment with my children at midnight.
Last year we had a super-fun sleepover with my best friend, her husband, and their children, and it was loaded with fun finger foods! This year, due to all of the illnesses running wild in our area, we’re back down to just the four of us.
But that’s not going to stop us from eating some great New Year’s Eve food – we’ll just have some leftovers for New Year’s Day!
I’ve put together a very inspiring, mouth-watering list of foods to eat on New Year’s Eve.
Whether you just need some New Year’s Eve snack foods (like mini pigs in a blanket) to spend a nice family holiday with your kids, or you need some easy New Year’s Eve party food (like cinnamon roll popcorn) to entertain your closest friends, you’ll find something here everyone will love.
I’ve also included some main dish-substitute recipes that are nice and hearty (like buffalo chicken meatballs) and some fun grown-up drinks (like the butterfinger drink), too.
Since we tend to eat so much in the evening, our family likes to have brunch earlier in the day instead of two other full meals. I’ve included some excellent brunch-friendly recipes for you to try earlier in the day, as well!
If you’re sticking it out at home this year when you usually spend it partying with pals, you can always share your favorite foods from this list with friends.
Everyone can prepare the dishes at home, and you can talk about how delicious they are over Zoom!
Just click on any picture you like to go to the recipe in a new tab.
Dips, Finger Foods & Bite-Sized Recipes
Dips
- Spinach Artichoke Dip: This classic party dip is easy to make, either in your crockpot or on the stove. Even my young children will eat artichokes this way!
- Cream Cheese Sausage Dip: Spicy sausage and jalapenos are tempered by the cream cheese in this hearty, savory dip. A very filling New Year’s Eve dip!
- Ham Dip: Have any leftover ham from your Christmas dinner? Use it up in this deliciously creamy dip on New Year’s!
- Dill Pickle Dip: I LOVE dill pickles, and this creamy dip is full of flavor. When I’m in the mood for salty over sweet, I substitute green olives (and the juice from the jar!) for pickles!
- Crab Rangoon Dip: When I eat crab rangoons, I just bite into the soft part and leave the crunchy wonton tips behind, because all I really want is the hot cream cheese and crab filling. With this recipe, you can make a whole bowl of it! Turn wonton wrappers into chips for dipping… or just use a spoon. I won’t judge you.
- Maryland Crab Dip: This alternative crab dip features creamy cheddar cheese, pimentos, and Old Bay for a unique seafood flavor.
- 7-Layer Taco Dip: A popular party dip, this version is made keto-friendly with a special beanless refried beans recipe within the recipe! Of course, you can always just use canned refried beans if you’re not worried about a particular diet on New Year’s Eve.
- Refried Bean Dip: A simpler, fully-mixed version of taco dip, this one can be put together AND warmed up in just 5 minutes!
- Spinach Con Queso: This spicy spinach dip includes tomatoes and green chiles instead of artichokes, and swaps cream cheese for cheddar and pepper jack. Yum!
- Cream Cheese Salsa Dip: The salsa rests on top of a layer of cream cheese mixed with sour cream and topped with cheese and onions. You can choose how hot it is with mild or spicy salsa.
Cheese, Cheese, and More Cheese
- Prosciutto-Wrapped Brie: The hidden gem in this disc of melty cheese is your choice of sugar-free preserves! It adds a delicious fruity flavor without adding a lot of unnecessary carbs to this keto-friendly appetizer.
- Beer Cheese Fondue: Everyone’s favorite dip for literally everything is a great choice for a New Year’s Eve food. It is made with 6 ounces of beer in the whole pot, so it’s perfectly safe for older kids (in my opinion). If you need to make it little kid-friendly, you can just use non-alcoholic beer – or use it as an excuse to keep the kids out and have more cheese for yourself!
- Easy Cheese Ball: While rarely present at parties I’ve been to, when it’s there, the cheese ball is always my favorite thing! With cream cheese as the base for holding it together, you can mix pretty much any shredded cheeses you like in it. And if you’re like me and don’t care for almonds, you can always cook and crumble some bacon bits to roll it in!
- Fried Brie Bites: If “fried cheese” wasn’t enough to tempt you to try this recipe, you should know it also includes steps for making a sweet raspberry sauce for dipping the fried cheese in. It’s an explosion of flavor you can’t resist.
- Marinated Mozzarella Balls: This is an extremely easy recipe for seasoning and adding flavor to mozzarella bites. The balsamic vinegar is billed as optional, but I highly recommend it.
- Individual Cheese Boards: When sharing a charcuterie board with kids, things can get messy and gross – fast. This recipe for four individual charcuterie boards will allow you to keep your own board nice and neat while letting the kids feel fancy and sophisticated with their very own!
Kid Favorites
- Kids’ Charcuterie Board: If you’ve got younger ones who don’t care for the fancy cheeses and meats of a traditional charcuterie board, this is a fun kid-friendly twist on easy New Year’s Eve food. Once they see the pizza bagels and M&Ms, they’ll be hooked!
- Mini Pigs in a Blanket: This is another appetizer that just didn’t show up often enough in my childhood, even though I loved the crap out of them! Little smokies wrapped in crescent strips are a magnet for kids and perfect for dipping in hot cheese.
- Cream Cheese Rangoons: These simple rangoons don’t contain any crabmeat, just garlic powder and delicious green onions. Dip them in sweet chili sauce for an extra burst of flavor.
- Cornucopia Salami Roll-Ups: When I was a kid, I used to smear mayo on a slice of American cheese on a slice of bologna, roll it up, and eat it. Now I’m all grown up and make delicious versions like this one – and the kids love it too! It features my all-time favorite and underappreciated spice, dried dill.
- Pizza Bombs: Fill delicious balls of dough with marinara, mozzarella and pepperoni, baste them with Italian seasoning, and serve with extra marinara sauce on the side for a delicious treat kids will devour!
- Crockpot Grape Jelly Meatballs: My mind was BLOWN as a kid when I learned that my favorite party meatballs were actually drenched in a melted grape jelly sauce. These are extremely easy to make, and a hearty choice for making sure kids get plenty of protein in a night full of snacks.
On a Stick
- Antipasto Skewers: My favorite thing on this Italian skewer is something that may surprise everyone at your party: cheese tortellini! No one expects to find stuffed pasta on a skewer New Year’s Eve, but you can be sure no one will complain.
- Caprese and Prosciutto Mini Skewers: These simpler small skewers get a pop of flavor with a balsamic drizzle. (I would put balsamic drizzle on everything if I could!)
- Fruit Kabobs with Cream Cheese Dip: Fruit is often lacking in an evening filled with appetizer-style foods. These fruit skewers and accompanying yummy dip will help balance out all of the cheese dips and mini meats in your New Year’s Eve menu!
Finger Foods
- Baked Buffalo Cauliflower: If you love the zing of buffalo wings but need a lighter choice to accompany other meaty New Year’s Eve food, you should try these cauliflower bites! Spicy AND crunchy, they also give you a great excuse to bust out some blue cheese dip.
- Crispy Sweet Potato Fries with Honey Mustard Sauce: Homemade sweet potato fries beat frozen every day of the week. This recipe uses both orange and purple for a visually appealing platter, and the homemade honey mustard sauce incorporates mayo for a creamy dip.
- Avocado Devilled Eggs: Trade mayo for a healthier fat in your devilled egg filling – and sneak in some spinach on the way! Pro tip for making devilled eggs: don’t use fresh eggs from the store. Buy them a couple of weeks in advance – the shells will come off much easier after boiling.
- Pepperoni and Cheese Pizza Roll-Ups: These tasty bites remind me of party pinwheels, just warm and oven-baked. This recipe uses canned dough making it extra-simple, and you can put any of your favorite pizza toppings on them!
- Air Fryer Egg Rolls: These traditional egg rolls filled with ground chicken (or your meat of choice) and cabbage are much easier to make than you think! If you have an instant pot, they can be made in there as well.
- Crostini with Prosciutto: Once upon a time I made a recipe that required Herbs de Provence, and haven’t used it for anything since… until this recipe came along! It gives a distinctly Italian aroma to these yummy little bread bites.
- Keto Charcuterie Board: Sticking to a keto diet on New Year’s Eve couldn’t be easier than making a charcuterie. No crackers or bread just means more room for meats, cheeses, and berries – and quite frankly, that’s all I want on my board anyway.
- Buttery Ranch-Seasoned Crackers: Dress up the ol’ Ritz sleeve by dipping it in a concoction of ranch seasoning and hot sauce (among other things), then baking them to crisp perfection. They’d pair well with the ham dip above!
- Spinach and Artichoke Bites: Love spinach dip, but don’t like how it runs into everything else on your party plate? Try these instead! It’s basically spinach dip inside a crescent roll, giving you all the flavor without all the mess.
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More Bite-Sized Appetizers
- Fully-Loaded Twice-Baked Potato Bites: Twice-baked potatoes are my favorite, and using baby reds means you can pop them right into your mouth! Make your life easy and use a melon baller to scoop out the soft potato pulp after baking once.
- White Cheddar Stuffed Mushrooms: These irresistible mushrooms are actually stuffed with THREE kinds of cheese, then drizzled with a creamy cheddar sauce! They’re very similar to Longhorn’s stuffed mushrooms and they’ll be gone before they get cold.
- Honey Garlic Cauliflower: These florets are deep fried and coated in a homemade sweet and mild sauce, making them a very convincing substitute for flavored buffalo wings. Don’t tell your kids what they are and see if they like them!
- Greek Zucchini Balls: Filled with feta and onions and deep fried to perfection, you can dip these balls in just about any sauce for a surprisingly flavorful New Year’s Eve food.
- Sweet Potato Rounds with Goat Cheese: These crispy sweet potato chips can be tossed with whatever cheese and fruit you prefer; ricotta and dried apricots would be my pick! Use a mandoline for getting perfectly even sweet potato slices.
- Baked Jalapeno Poppers: Always the star of any party, jalapeno poppers are easier to make than you think. They’re also not as spicy as you think – once the seeds are removed from a jalapeno, the heat is more than tolerable. Cream cheese tempers it even more for a wonderful, crunchy appetizer.
- Prosciutto Asparagus: If you’re on the fence about whether or not you like asparagus, wrapping it in prosciutto will likely tip the scales. This is an extremely simple appetizer for New Year’s Eve and easily grabbed on the move during a party.
- Cranberry Cream Cheese Appetizer: This recipe could really fall into either appetizer or dessert territory, depending on how you want to serve it. The original recipe calls for green onion to be mixed in the cream cheese, but you could always beat it on its own or with a bit of sugar and keep it sweet.
Main Dish-Substitute Appetizers
- Beef Crostini with Mascarpone Sauce: Fancy but simple (my fave kind of recipe), toasted bagel slices are topped with beef tenderloin and topped with a well-seasoned blend of mayo and mascarpone. Heaven!
- Pizza Cups: Easier than pizza bites wrapped in dough, this recipe simply uses wonton wrappers to contain traditional pizza filling for a fun, unique twist on a classic dish.
- Cream Cheese Chorizo-Stuffed Mini Peppers: These are no different than the stuffed peppers you usually make for dinner – they’re just fun-sized! Chorizo and cheese make these stuffed peppers a filling, hearty choice for New Year’s Eve food.
- Party Pinwheels: You know them, you love them – the party sandwich that’s made out of a giant sandwich roll! This recipe uses dried beef and ranch seasoning for an amazing taste.
- Bacon-Wrapped Little Smokies: Full of protein and packed with flavor, this appetizer is both filling and a kid favorite! Remove the toothpicks after baking for easy poppin’, or leave them in for dipping in maple syrup.
- Chipotle Pulled Pork and Mini Corn Waffles: Chicken and waffles gets a run for its money against this spicy, bite-sized dish! Tiny homemade corn waffles are smeared with chipotle sauce before being topped with chipotle pulled pork. Keep some celery and blue cheese on hand to counter the heat!
- Instant Pot Buffalo Chicken Meatballs: Ground chicken is filled with the perfect blend of seasonings, coated in buffalo sauce and cooked to perfection in no time. Dip it in ranch for a perfect party meat.
- Sheet Pan Chicken Nachos: When you’re playing games and having a good time on New Year’s Eve, no one really wants to sit down and eat a meal. So let everyone graze on a whole pan of chicken nachos! It’ll keep them satisfied and tastes delicious.
- Mini Taco Salad Cups: What is the most-craved food in the middle of the night? Tacos! Give everyone a taste of what they want with these tiny taco cups. You can fill with your meat of choice or just use refried beans to keep it vegetarian, and they come together in no time.
- Air Fryer Lemon Pepper Wings: These wings are delicious and super-easy to make. Just season them up with some olive oil as a base, air fry them for 20 minutes, and you’ve got a great, filling finger food!
- Fried Honey Garlic Chicken Wings: I LOVE honey garlic wings, and around here, every restaurant seems to make you choose either honey BBQ or garlic (with parmesan or something). So I just make the perfect flavor at home! These are fried the old-fashioned way for a yummy late-night comfort food.
- Chicken Tartlets with Cranberry Salsa: These are a little bit fancier than I usually cook, but New Year’s Eve food is allowed to be special. Chicken is blended with cream cheese (YES!) then topped with a unique, spicy homemade cranberry salsa. You could choose to add some pecans if you want a bit of extra crunch, too.
- Chicken Tikkas: When I lived in Dublin, Ireland, for some reason there seemed to be an Indian restaurant on every block! So I ate it a lot, and chicken tikka masala was my favorite dish. This is just the chicken part, so you can dip it in anything you like! A plethora of seasonings are mixed in oil, then chicken is marinated for a looong time for maximum flavor absorption before being cooked. Delicious!
- Garlic Shrimp and Butternut Party Bites: If you don’t like butternut squash, you just haven’t roasted it right! This recipe will help you out, and makes a simple but beautiful main dish-style bite on a stick.
- Baked Shrimp Toast: This recipe reminds me of my open-faced crab salad sandwiches, but with chopped shrimp! One of my all-time favorites – there are never any leftovers of this warm, cheesy, seafood bread.
- Baked Coconut Shrimp with Pineapple Salsa: I can’t get my husband to eat coconut shrimp (we both hate coconut, but I’ll eat shrimp in anything). Fortunately, I can eat all the shrimp without his help. The pineapple salsa really makes each bite go down easy!
- Smoked Salmon and Dill Canapes: Y’all know I wouldn’t recommend an overly fancy recipe. This one just LOOKS fancy, but it’s really easy to do – it only takes 10 minutes to fill a platter! I’m a sucker for dill in anything, and smoked salmon is my favorite way to eat fish.
If you’d rather have an actual meal for New Year’s Eve dinner instead of finger foods, I encourage you to check out my recipe for lasagna rolls. Kids love it, it’s a holiday Preferred Food by everyone in my family, and a single batch makes 12 servings. That way you can feed a crowd OR have leftovers for New Year’s Day!
New Year’s Desserts and Sweet Snacks
- No-Bake Cheesecake Bites: Using premade shells means making these tiny little fruit-topped cheesecakes is a piece of… well, cake. Everyone will love these sweet, creamy indulgences – and they won’t be able to stop at one!
- Countdown Cupcakes: Aren’t these adorable?? Jazz up some regular ol’ vanilla cupcakes with celebratory sprinkles and some customized Oreo halves. (You’ll just have to eat the other half while you make them. Can’t waste them, right?)
- Chocolate Chip Muffins: These mini muffins remind me a lot of the ones you can get in a little bag of five. You can pop a whole one in your mouth, making them irresistible. Better make a double batch!
- Apple Cinnamon Scones: I need to make an important confession: I didn’t know cinnamon chips were a thing before I found this recipe. Now that I know, I’m obsessed!! These are like biting in to a perfect taste of winter and instantly make you feel cozy and happy.
- No-Bake Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies: Let your kids help you decorate these super-easy cookies! They only take a few minutes to mix together and set up in the fridge. Using cupcake liners helps ensure all the sprinkles stay with the cookie instead of rolling all over the table!
- Resolution Fortune Cookies: Making your own fortune cookies is surprisingly easy! Print out your own unique fortunes to put in the cookies, and decorate them for the New Year any way you like.
- Cranberry Orange Brie Tarts: These beautiful, dreamy little desserts are extremely easy to make – just drop some cranberry sauce and a cube of brie into premade phyllo shells, and bake until melty! Serve them warm for the best experience.
- Mini Lemon Meringue Tarts: My favorite fruit pie is a tie between key lime and lemon meringue. I just LOVE cool citrus flavors! The difficulty of this recipe is up to you. You can use premade tart shells and lemon curd, or you can make it all from scratch.
- Raspberry Puff Pastry Tarts with Lemon Cream Cheese: If those mini tartlets aren’t quite enough for you and your loved ones (or if you know everyone would just eat four of them anyway), you might want to try this dessert! Each pastry is a bit bigger and has a flaky, satisfying texture.
- Chocolate Lollipops: These couldn’t be easier to decorate and customize. Kids love anything on a stick, and let’s be honest… grown-ups do, too!
- Cinnamon Roll Popcorn: I’ve been on a popcorn binge since about May. I can’t get enough! This particular recipe is a dream come true, because cinnamon is my favorite winter baking spice. Reminds me of Cinnabon, but slightly healthier! Just make sure you have some plain kernels to pop (because I tend to stock movie theatre butter-flavored.. mmm!).
- Sugared Champagne Grapes: Pop these bad boys out of the freezer late in the night for a sweet, boozy treat. If you’re going to have kids in the house, you should probably wait until they fall asleep so they don’t try to grab any!
New Year’s Eve Drinks (Alcoholic and Non)
- Death Spasm Cocktail: One of my original recipes, this sounds scarier than it is.. well, maybe. It uses pink champagne as well as absinthe, which I grew up thinking was a poisonous, mind-altering liquor. Turns out it’s just really strong – so drink this slowly!
- Pomegranate Mimosas: I’m not one for a lot of fancy garnishes or fruits and seeds in my drinks. I like simple mixers with real ingredients that taste GOOD, and this cocktail checks all the boxes! All you need is some pomegranate juice and champagne or sparkling wine. You can still use those fancy garnishes (like frozen cranberries or mint sprigs) if you want, though!
- Cranberry and Bourbon Cocktail: If you make bourbon balls for Christmas (like my mom) but don’t really drink it yourself, this is a great way to use up what’s left! A very tasty homemade cranberry sauce is dissolved into bourbon, then strained over ice and garnished however you like. I love the way slightly thicker cocktails like these glide across the tongue!
- Butterfinger Drink: Buttershots and I have a very special relationship – it’s special to me, and I drink it too easily (haha!). This alcoholic drink doubles as a dessert, with crushed Butterfinger, butterscotch and chocolate chips, and oat milk to make it nice and creamy. And don’t forget the rum! Try making it virgin for the kids with some extra oat milk and butterscotch extract instead of schnapps and rum.
- Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate: Making everyone individual servings of hot chocolate can be a pain. Keeping a batch warm in the slow cooker is genius, and allows for more creativity! Just make sure you stir it once in a while (even after it’s “cooked”) to keep it smooth and not burnt.
New Year’s Eve Brunch Food
Need something to hold everyone in the house over until it’s time to lay out the appetizer spread for the evening? Try some classic, simple brunch dishes that are satisfying enough to bridge breakfast and lunch.
- Buttermilk Waffles: Making homemade waffles with actual buttermilk is way better than using box mix. Trust me, we’ve tried it both ways, and there’s just no contest.
- French Toast Foil Packet: Instead of pan-frying your french toast, try this method and save some mess before prepping your New Year’s Eve food! It can be cooked in the oven, over the fire, or you can use it as an excuse to fire up the grill in the middle of winter.
- Sheet Pan Eggs: Just like the french toast, these eggs can be made in the oven, freeing up the stove for other things. If you’re going to have a lot of people in your house New Year’s Eve morning, this pan of eggs is enough to feed a crowd and comes out perfectly, evenly baked. Put in any veggies you like!
- Rosti Eggs Benny: If you’ve got the time and energy for a nice brunch, this recipe is basically eggs benedict on STEROIDS. Potato rostis (basically hash brown cakes) are topped with poached eggs, hollandaise, and crumbled bacon… BRB, it’s suddenly brunch o’clock here!
Aren’t there New Year’s Eve food traditions?
You might be wondering which of these New Year’s Eve foods are for good luck or are traditional to eat each year.
But you’re actually thinking of New Year’s Day foods, which are often centered around both tradition and superstition.
When it comes to New Year’s Eve food, no one has imposed any particular rules – so feel free to cook up whatever sounds tastiest to you from the list above!
(And by the way, you can do that on New Year’s Day, too, if you don’t like the traditional foods. I promise nothing bad will happen.)
Who will you be sharing your New Year’s Eve food with this year? What recipes do you plan on trying? I think I’ll be making the crab rangoon dip and countdown cupcakes for my family.
Let me know your favorites in the comments below!
Be sure to check out my list of New Year resolution ideas, as well as some great New Year quotes to post on your social media in the morning!
Oh my goodness so many great ideas!! I will be coming back for sure!!
Oh my gosh! My mouth is watering! There are so many here that have just made my NYE shortlist – prosciutto-wrapped brie, marinated mozzarella balls, mini lemon meringe tarts, the jelly meatballs and beef crostini, the cranberry bourbon cocktail… I could go on, but I need to shorten the list somehow! Thanks for the great ideas!
oh how yummy! Those avocado deviled eggs are a must try!
I think I gained 5 lbs by just looking at all these delicious foods! Yum! Thanks for sharing!