Wow Your Guests with These Virtual New Year’s Eve Party Ideas

Can you believe it’s almost time to start thinking about New Year’s celebrations already? It’s such an exciting time of year — the promise of what the future holds, mixed with all that festive joy of the season. It’s the perfect time to bring your loved ones together for a virtual celebration.

Whether you’re hosting your annual New Year’s bash online this year or taking charge for the first time ever, here’s all you need to help you pull off a spectacular virtual New Year’s Eve party. 

How to Plan a Virtual New Year’s Eve Party

Design: Anna K Design

Before you can dance the night away or watch the ball drop, you first need to get your party-planning hat on. If you’re hosting this NYE, here are all the details you’ll need to know to help you plan and host an impressive get-together. 

Choose a Theme for Your Virtual New Year’s Eve Party

You don’t always need a theme for a party, but it can help you dive into planning more easily if you have an idea in mind. Whether you keep it simple with a luxurious gold-and-black soirée or opt for a bright ’70s disco-inspired bash, your theme can guide your activity choices later down the line. 

Pulling off a virtual celebration can be harder than an in-person one, so you can also lean on your theme for a lot of the atmosphere. Get cozy and pull an all-nighter with a winter movie watchalong, or encourage your guests to dress in their finest metallics for a celebrity-inspired event. 

Put Together Your Guest List

Your virtual New Year’s Eve party is going to be amazing, but you need the perfect guests there to help you pull it off. Now’s the time to start planning your guest list and working out who’ll be with you to see in the new year. 

Think about which of your closest friends and family members you’d love to celebrate with. Virtual parties are best kept small, so you can recreate that intimate atmosphere across the distance. If you want younger family members to be involved, check that their parents are happy for them to stay up late — or host something in the late afternoon instead so they can join you. 

Find the Right Platform

Your virtual party needs the right venue to really help it shine. Luckily, most virtual New Year’s Eve parties work great on a casual platform like Zoom or Google Hangouts — or even directly through Facebook Messenger or a messaging app on your phone. 

For an event like a murder mystery or live class run by an outside company, your host might have a platform in mind already. In that case, check in with them to find out in advance, so you can prepare your guests who may not have used it before. 

Plan Your Event Details

You’ve got your guest list sorted, now it’s time to plan what fun you’ll be having at your online event. This is one of the best parts of party planning — deciding your activities, games, virtual experiences, and more. 

For that big moment, check out a livestream of the New York Times Square ball drop moment, or tune in to a live fireworks show. For more ideas on what you could feature on your virtual New Year’s Eve party agenda, check out our section below filled with activity and game ideas. 

Send Out Your Virtual New Year’s Eve Party Invites

With your event pretty much all planned out, you can jump ahead to one of our favorite parts of the whole planning experience — sending out the invites to your New Year’s Eve event! 

Take a look through our New Year’s Eve party invites and find a design that matches your event theme and style. From there, you can personalize your online invitations with everything from custom colors to your own wording and photos. It’s easy to transform an in-person invite into a virtual one too — all you need to do is customize the text. Have fun really making your invites feel uniquely “you” before you send them out to your excited guests. 

Fun Virtual New Year’s Eve Party Activities and Games

Design: Laura Bolter Design

Even though you can’t be together in person, you can still have plenty of fun playing games and taking part in themed activities from your living room. Put some sparkle into your New Year’s Eve celebration with these party games and activity ideas. 

Enjoy a Cocktail-Making Class

Turn your virtual event into a boozy one with a super exciting at-home cocktail-making class. You don’t even have to be an expert to run it. Book a package with a company that specializes in this and they’ll take care of ingredients, care packages, and demos — so you can sit back, relax, and enjoy some bubbly! 

Host a Virtual Disco or Karaoke Session

Who said you can’t have a virtual dance party? Instead of a laid-back NYE shindig, host a virtual house party with a live performance from a DJ friend or your very own playlist as the perfect backdrop for some dance moves. This works great on its own or with a theme — like festive favorites, ’70s disco fever, or ’90s club classics. 

Play Virtual Party Games

One of the best things to do at a virtual get-together is to play some games, and a NYE party is no exception. Match your virtual games to your audience, as you know them best. Play some risque wordplay games with Jackbox games, or stick with traditional classics like a digital version of Pictionary, Scattergories, or Catan.

Host a Cozy Movie Night In

Your virtual New Year’s Eve party doesn’t have to be all singing and dancing. It’s totally okay to go with something that’s super relaxed, cozy, and festive. Host a movie watchalong with your loved ones and put on your favorite seasonal film, timed to end just before the New Year countdown. 

Play a Year-in-Review Trivia Quiz

What a year it’s been, and New Year’s Eve feels like the ideal time to reflect back on it. Gather some trivia questions, facts, and soundbites to put together a trivia quiz for everyone to enjoy. Work solo or in small groups to see who knows the most about the year that’s just passed. 

Get Everyone Excited with These Virtual New Year’s Eve Party Invites

Excited to share the news with everyone? We’d love to help you make that happen with one of our New Year’s Eve party invites. They’re super easy to customize too, so you can add photos, change the wording, and swap out the color combinations to match your event. 

Browse our collection of designs until you find one you love. Swap the venue details out for “Joining instructions to follow!” and you have the perfect starting point for your customized virtual New Year’s Eve party invites. 

To help you find the perfect invite, here’s a handful of our most-loved designs for this year. 

Shifted Year Invitation

Design: Snow + Ivy

Make sure your guests know exactly which year we’re heading into with this Shifted Year invitation. The gorgeous minimalist approach on the front continues on the back, where there’s plenty of space to add details about your virtual get-together. 

Bold Statement Invitation

Design: Laura Bolter Design

We adore the striking typography on this Bold Statement invitation. Those beautiful gold foil effects work perfectly against the deep backdrop, making this ideal for a sophisticated virtual New Year’s Eve celebration. 

Party Martini Invitation

Design: Eric Clegg Design

Hosting a virtual cocktail masterclass at your NYE celebration? This Party Martini invitation is a totally on-theme way to share the news with your guests. This fun invite is available in three different colorways — each as deliciously bold as the next. 

Make Your Virtual New Year’s Eve Party Shine

There’s so much excitement around that big moment when the year ticks over. It’s a lovely time to gather to reminisce on the past year, celebrate good moments, honor loved ones, and look ahead at what’s to come. 

Use this guide to help inspire your planning process for your virtual New Year’s Eve bash. Choose a festive theme, plan some activities, and find the perfect invite to break the news to your family members and friends that your party is the place to be this year — and they don’t even have to leave home.