Whether it’s plans for a healthier lifestyle in the new year, or simply making the most of saying a firm farewell to 2020, the Varsity team have plenty of ideas for this year.

Georgina Buckle, Varsity Editor

My New Year’s Eve plans have constantly changed over the last few years: from dressing up with family and having a hearty meal, to having much less food (and more drinks) with friends, as we cackled our way into the New Year. This year, I embraced 2021 from the comfort of my sofa, watching Parasite with my family, after having eaten one of the best homemade fish pies of my life (very necessary information).

I can’t say that Parasite set the tone of New Year’s Eve as easy-going and relaxing – but, we’re in the middle of a pandemic. Easy-going and Relaxing? Pah! Who needs them? It was a slightly off-brand New Year’s night, but a very happy night nonetheless.

Gaby Vides, Varsity Editor

While 2020 has definitely not been what we all expected, it has certainly provided a lot to reflect on. My resolutions for this year are inevitably building upon the lessons I’ve learnt from the pandemic: slowing down, appreciating the inevitability of change and valuing close friends and family more.

I’ve always been a big fan of New Year’s Eve, and Tier 4 hasn’t managed to dampen that! Think of all the clichés – over-enthusiastic resolutions, staying up for the fireworks, knowing all the words to Auld Lang Syne: they’re me in a nutshell! I’ll be spending this New Year with my boyfriend, who I’ve been bubbling up with. My number one goal will be to get him onside, as he’s a New Year cynic (sparklers have been ordered in aid of my efforts!)

Elizabeth Haigh, Deputy Varsity Editor

I’ve never been one to make New Years resolutions. However, after 2020, I think a lot of us need something to aim for, even if it’s something simple. So I’ve made a resolution to stop apologising so much. I’m always the first to apologise whenever something goes wrong, even if it has nothing to do with me. I apologise for feelings, for disturbing my friends for a chat, for anything that involves me taking up space. If there’s one thing this year has taught me, it’s that everyone’s needs and emotions are valid. There’s no point feeling guilty about it, because if I need something, the chances are that there are many others out there who do, too.

Meike Leonard, Deputy Varsity Editor

My family’s approach to both Christmas and New Year is simple: lots of food, a long walk, and an intense board-game that invariably ends in a spectacular row, lead by whoever is most incensed by the others’ flagrant rule-breaking (read: is losing). This year, I’m expecting some serious fireworks, given the fact that we’ve been solely in each others company for the past few weeks. I’ve got the perfect game in mind: Cluedo. Excited to find out who murders whom this year!

Isabel Sebode, Vulture Editor

New Year’s Eve does not mean much to me – if anything, I see it as a night to eat good food with friends, have a few drinks and enjoy the evening. I try to avoid the pressure of making it the night of the year, after all, why set unhealthy expectations on the last night of the year? However, what I do every year is wake up and go on a walk after breakfast; feel the cold air on my skin, walk through the empty streets and let myself be overcome with this artificial feeling of renewal. Whether hungover or not, a cold walk helps me start my new year.

Alex Jarvis, Lifestyle Editor

New Year is normally a time for my family to get together with our Cornish cousins, either at ours or down by the coast. This time between Christmas and New Year would normally be spent in preparation for guests; I’d always be working on a murder mystery for the eight of us (a New Year classic). This year, though, things have been slower, and I’ve loved it. We even had time to sit and watch an Agatha Christie marathon on TV instead of having our own murder mystery, and it was incredible.

“...after all, why set unhealthy expectations on the last night of the year?”

Instead of watching the TV countdown, we have plans to get dressed up, eat tapas, and break out my mum’s karaoke machine. As with everything this year, it’s likely to feel a bit strange. This isn’t exactly how anyone imagined celebrating the new year. However, as I’ve been discovering, that doesn’t mean it’s an entirely lost cause!

Scarlet Rowe, Lifestyle Editor

If I’m honest, I’ve never really understood the whole ‘new year, new me’ mantra, because typically most of my family are in bed by midnight, making it a bit of an anticlimax. You can usually find me with friends drinking tea and missing the countdown entirely. This year, I managed to watch the fireworks from my bedroom window, listening to none other than Michael Jackson. Resolution-wise, I’m afraid to say I have none. I know in advance that I will probably break any resolution I make, so I’m saving myself from that mid-January regret!

Nadya Miryanova, Violet Editor

In Russia, the New Year is very widely recognised and celebrated, even more so than Christmas. Growing up in a UK-based Russian family has meant that my family’s New Year traditions have become an eclectic cultural mix! Every year without fail, we’ll put on the festive, comedic Russian show ‘New Year’s Blue Light’ in the background, while eating an array of celebratory salads and canapés. Even before Zoom was fashionable, we’d call our relatives and virtually celebrate the coming of the Russian and Ukrainian New Year! When the clock strikes 12, we’ll celebrate the British New Year by watching the fireworks on TV, and then we’ll watch ‘The Irony of Fate’ for the billionth time (the most brilliant, funny New Year’s film, watched by virtually the entire Russian population), and stay up until an ungodly hour playing games (monopoly included!). As for any New Year’s resolutions, let’s say I’ll try to eat less sugar and get better at replying! I’m just hoping they go more to plan this year ...

Lotte Brundle, Violet Editor

I usually spend New Years Eve having a few drinks with my friends and, on one or more occasion, this tradition has resulted in me ruining my Mum’s birthday the day after. Hopefully, because the pubs are shut this year, I’ll be able to celebrate with her on a socially distanced walk (without feeling my usually sub-par New Year’s Day self!)

“... there’s no better way to celebrate the end of 2020 than in your slippers, tipsy in front of the TV!”

When it comes to resolutions for 2021, the only one I can make in good consciousness is to try to be more thankful for the things I do still have in my life, after the devastating occurrences in 2020. After last year, I’m determined to appreciate the good in my life and be thankful for my loved ones. Oh, and smoke less when we’re allowed out drinking again!

Amber De Ruyt, Varsity Podcast Producer

2020 has been a truly crazy year for traditions, as it has shown us that everything we know to be normal can be overturned by a single press conference. I learnt this the hard way, as Tier 4 and travel restrictions cancelled my flight to join my parents in Spain just before Christmas … but, I ended up having a really lovely day, complimented by my college buttery’s free Christmas lunch and a walk around Cambridge, a city I realised I never really knew!

This has given me hope for New Year’s Eve, a night usually filled with loud music, bustling crowds and shared drinks, all things that just aren’t meant to be this year. However, I’ve come to the (perhaps obvious) conclusion that New Year’s Eve does happen every year and, as a result, not every year needs to be a wilder party than the last.

This year, I’m looking forward to an evening in college with a takeaway, cheap Sainsbury’s Prosecco and my support bubbled boyfriend, as we look back on a crazy few months and cautiously make plans for those to come. NYE is about celebrating the year gone by, and in my eyes there’s no better way to do that this year than in your slippers, tipsy in front of the TV before midnight!