No crowds, no queue for a taxi, no shouting over the music: more and more couples spend New Year's Eve at home, just the two of them. It only feels like an ordinary evening if it looks like one, so the trick is to change the light. Here are 8 ideas for a romantic New Year's Eve at home for two, from dinner by candlelight to the moment the clock strikes twelve, and most take a few minutes to set up.
1. A candlelit dinner for two
Lay the table you use every day as if it were a restaurant: a cloth, your best glasses, the main light off and a cluster of candles in the middle. Flameless pillar candles have a 3D flame that flickers softly, with no wax dripping on the cloth and nothing to blow out at midnight, and the remote dims them as the evening goes on.
Shown: flameless candles with remote, a set of 3 in three heights, in white, ivory or smoke gray.
2. Your year in photos
Before dinner, print twenty or thirty photos from your phone: trips, ordinary Sundays, the funny ones. Clip them on a string of warm lights across a wall or over the sofa, and look back at the year together with a glass in hand. It stays up as a photo wall long after New Year.
Shown: photo clip string lights, 2 m, 5 m or 10 m, with clips, on batteries.
3. Your initials in lights
Two letters and a heart say more than a banner: put your initials on the table or a shelf, with the red heart between them. They run on batteries, so they can go wherever you are, and after New Year they work for Valentine's Day and anniversaries too.
Shown: light-up marquee letters, 22 cm (8.7 in) tall, sold one letter at a time, with an “&” and a red heart.
4. Fireworks you watch from the sofa
Firecracker lights are little bursts of warm-white LEDs on a fine silver wire that holds the shape you give it: bend them into a heart, a star or a starburst over the window, and you have fireworks inside, with no noise and no smoke. The remote changes the mode and the brightness from the sofa.
Shown: firecracker fairy lights, 1.5 m with 50 LEDs or 6 m with 200, USB.
5. A slow dance under a disco ball
Make a playlist of your songs, from the first one you danced to onwards, and hang a few mini disco balls where the light hits them: every flicker of the candles and the fairy lights sends little sparkles across the walls. Push the coffee table aside and you have a dance floor for two.
Shown: mini disco ball ornaments, 5 cm, in packs of 10, 20 or 30.
6. 2027 in lights at midnight
Keep four marquee numbers switched off on the table until a minute to midnight, then switch them on one by one during the countdown: 2, 0, 2, 7. It's the photo of the night, and the numbers come back out for birthdays and anniversaries.
Shown: light-up marquee numbers, 22 cm (8.7 in) tall, sold one number at a time: for 2027, two “2”, one “0” and one “7”.
7. Your own message on the window
If you can see the fireworks from your window or balcony, write your own message for the street on smart curtain lights: HAPPY 2027, your names or a heart. Draw it or type it in the app, switch scenes with the remote from the sofa, and watch the real fireworks through it at midnight.
Shown: smart animated Christmas lights, 2 × 2 m or 3 × 3 m, 400 LEDs.
8. A letter to open next New Year's Eve
Before midnight, each of you writes a short letter to the other: what you loved about this year and what you hope for in 2027. Seal them in one envelope and don't open it until next New Year's Eve. It costs nothing, and it's the part you'll remember.
Good to know
- Power: the flameless candles take 3 AAA batteries each, the marquee letters and numbers 2 AA each and the photo clip lights 3 AA (not included); the firecracker lights and the curtain lights run on USB (adapter not included).
- Indoors: the marquee letters and numbers, the photo clip lights and the firecracker lights are for indoor use. The firecracker remote takes a CR2025 coin battery (not included): keep spare coin batteries out of reach of children.
- Glass: the mini disco balls have glass mirror tiles; hang them out of reach of small children and pets.
- Delivery: free tracked shipping, dispatched in 1 to 3 business days and delivered in 7 to 12. Order by 10 December for New Year's Eve.
- Returns: unused items in their original packaging can be returned within 30 days of delivery.
More New Year's Eve ideas
- Decorating for the night? Here are our New Year's Eve decoration ideas and our New Year's Eve decorations.
- Not just the two of you? See New Year's Eve with kids: 8 ideas and New Year's Eve with pets: 8 ideas. Planning to pop the question? Here are 8 Christmas proposal ideas.
- Browse all our Christmas decorations or our 12 Christmas gift ideas under $30.
Hosting friends at home? Here are 8 New Year's Eve party ideas at home.
Shopping for your other half? Here are 8 romantic Christmas gifts for your partner.