With Christmas over, you have just a week left until it’s new year’s eve, Christmas tends to take up a lot of our time that we sometimes forget about the New Year until it’s too late. Fortunately, Masters of Mystery offer downloadable party games that you can print at home and so there’s no need to rush around trying to find something to do. We have a wide variety of games for you to download, some of our most popular New Years Eve murder mystery games include our 1920’s Murder Mystery “The Great Glittersby”, our Venetian Carnival and Masquerade Ball or our James Bond Monte Carlo Mystery but there are lots of games to choose from at Masters of Mystery.
You don’t need to worry about the drinks to serve either because we’ve got a few sparkling options available that require minimal prep time and many things you may already have left over from your Christmas Party.
DRINKS
A Sparkling Bees knees 35ml gin, 20ml honey, 20ml lemon juice and 70ml prosecco. Grab your cocktail shaker and fill it with ice before adding the gin, honey and lemon juice, shake for 20 seconds. Strain into a champagne flute and top up with sparkling wine.
A French Kiss made with 25ml gin and 15ml raspberry liqueur or syrup, champagne or Prosecco, to top up. Simply fill a cocktail shaker with ice, then add the gin and raspberry liqueur/syrup and shake for 30 seconds and pour into a champagne flute, top up with champagne/prosecco.
A Classic snowball is a popular favourite with many families. Made with lime juice or lime cordial, 50ml advocaat, 50ml lemonade and ice. Simply fill a glass with ice and add the lime juice/cordial. Pour the advocaat and lemonade over the ice and stir gently until the outside of the glass feels cold.
Eggnog, made from brandy, egg yolks, sugar, milk and vanilla extract. Here is a good eggnog recipe, you can even add your own flavours to give you something extra special.
There’s also a few things you can do to spice up your simple champagne or prosecco drinks.
- Sugar cubes and bitters. Coat the sugar cube with the bitters and when you drop the sugar cube in the glass it will create bubbles and cause it to fizz.
- Brandy can be added to champagne or prosecco for extra flavour. Including this with sugar cubes and bitters can create a sparkling, strong flavoured champagne cocktail.
- Shimmer powder can be bought from online retailers, you may already have some if you’ve followed our previous blogs. A small pack of Shimmer powder can last for months and can be added to any drink to create a swirling and shimmering effect. Shimmer Powder can be purchased here.
FOOD
You needn’t stress yourself out over what to serve people at your new year’s eve party either. We’ve put together a list of great, simple to make party foods that you can serve without breaking the bank, we know funds will be limited after the Christmas rush.
Hedgehog skewers, remember these from your childhood? Served at a birthday party you’d have pineapple, cheese, cocktail sausages and sausage rolls on cocktail sticks, sticking out of a fruit? Well, this concept is great for a new year’s eve party as you may have some of these things left over from your Christmas party. Now you’re a grown up though, you may want to add other items to your sticks. Cherry tomatoes, prawns, mozzarella bites, cucumbers etc. Here is a recipe for hedgehog ‘canapé’ skewers.
Christmas dinner sausage roll, combine the best parts of Christmas Dinner into one small bite you can serve at your New Year’s Eve Party. Using your cranberry sauce, turkey, stuffing, chipolatas, sage and gravy. Here is a recipe for Christmas Dinner sausage rolls.
Pull-apart meatball sliders, easy to prepare and simple to cook, these Italian style dishes are quick and easy for you to add to your New Years Eve Party Menu. They may require a little planning, but you can pop to the supermarket between 27th and 30th December and find everything you need. Made with meatballs, bread rolls, mozzarella, tomato sauce, butter and herbs. Here is a recipe for pull-apart meatball sliders.
Cheese straws, are simple using just 2 ingredients puff-pastry and hard cheese (parmesan, aged cheddar etc.) and then baking parchment and a knife. Here is a recipe for cheese straws.
GAMES
There are lots of fun ideas and games that you can add to your New Year’s Eve party in addition to your murder mystery. Here are two fun ideas that you can do that your guests whether adults of children will love.
Pinata! Yes, you read that right. Who doesn’t love a pinata? They come in all shapes and sizes and can be bought online but why not have a go at making one yourself? Fill it with treats and have fun. Here are some methods for making your own piñata.
New Year Bingo. In our Christmas Games blog earlier this month we mentioned Christmas bingo, you can also do a New Years Eve bingo. Here are some printable bingo cards.
Don’t forget about decorations, your Christmas decorations are still up of course but why not add some New Years Eve balloons or get your guests to make their own party hats. You could even get each of your guests to make a memory and hopes chain. All you need are strips of paper or card, these can be coloured, plain or metallic, as long as they’re able to be written on with a marker pen.
Give each of your guests 2 strips of paper/card. On one of them get them to write down a good memory that they have from the year. On the other get them to write a hope or a dream they have for the New Year. Then connect one chain loop around the other and staple, glue or tape them together. Each of your guests can add to the chain. Solidifying their good memories and their hopes for the future.
We hope you have a great New Year, full of memories and joy. We look forward to seeing you back at Masters of Mystery next year!
