New Year’s Shabbat Ideas

Yesterday, I wrote about how much New Year’s Eve can suck when it falls on a Friday night. But instead of just complaining about it, I decided to get off my butt and come up with a couple of ideas that can make your New Year’s Shabbat really fun and enjoyable. And no…playing Monopoly is not an option.

1) Have a Passover Seder: Okay, here me out. What do people love more than anything else on New Year’s than to get drunk? Well, maybe four full glasses of wine will get you started. And since it’s not actually Passover, if you feel like eating bread, who’s gonna stop you? There’s singing, eating and drinking. But most of all, there is the afikomen! Imagine how much fun you will have with a drunken game of Afikomen!

2) Put on a Play: I’m not talking about renting out a theatre or a synagogue dining hall. With little preparation, you can transform your living room into a nice little space for you and your friends to put on Romeo & Juliet. The more improvised it is, the better.

3) Go Caroling: Right, right. Christmas is over, I know. But Shabbat has so many good songs–and your neighborhood needs to hear them! My advice would be to choose the short ones over the long ones so the neighbors get more bang for their buck. D’ror Yikra is great and all, but a little tiresome by the end.

4) Build a Fort: Forts are trendy these days–probably the trendiest they’ve been since the Civil War. Give me one reason why you wouldn’t want to see the clock strike midnight while you are huddled under sheets and couch cushions?  The best part about this idea is that it works if you have friends over or if you want to spend New Year’s alone. Forts are ALWAYS fun.

Hope those ideas help. And someone PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE host a Passover Seder on Friday night.