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New Year Has Come

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"Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true."
— Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "Ring Out, Wild Bells"

As sure as taxes, it comes at the end of every calendar: the New Year. A time for looking back, looking forward, and just going crazy. A time to celebrate and do all the things that for obvious reasons couldn't be done during the Christmas Episode.

Manga and anime love the New Year; in Japan, it's essentially the biggest holiday of the entire year (Christmas, which is the biggest holiday of the year in North America, being celebrated a bit differently there). This is where you can show all the girls and some of the boys looking good in kimono while making the traditional visit to the local shrine. Of course you can also dress some of them up as Miko (yes, some of the boys, too!) to manage the crowds and sell charms and fortunes to visitors. Or you can just let them stay up late to see the first sunrise of the new year—if they can stay awake, of course!

In Western media, New Year's Eve is often a source of date anxiety (to be hopefully relieved by a New Year's Kiss). Common things include big fireworks shows, lots of champagne and dancing, and the making (and, inevitably, breaking) of New Year's resolutions. And, of course, the sharing of a toast and singing of "Auld Lang Syne" When the Clock Strikes Twelve. Provided that the characters can agree on whether it's the first or the last stroke which marks the change (it's the first). And that everybody can stay awake; both young and old characters may be shown falling asleep before midnight (indicating immaturity for the former and fatigue for the latter). In action-adventure shows, the plot will often involve a bomb that's set to go off exactly at midnight local time (often at the ball-drop in New York City's Times Square or some similarly crowded equivalent).

Some works use the new year as a natural starting and/or ending point for their stories. In series, it may be used as an excuse for a Clip Show.

Since the whole point of New Year's is the date turnover, it can be weird when this trope meets a work in which the year is never given. If that's the case, expect the words "old year"/"last year" and "new year" to appear where the actual years would normally be mentioned.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 
    Anime and Manga 
  • ARIA: Both adaptations feature an installment covering Neo Venezia's New Year celebrations: the 12th episode of The Animation (occurring during Akari's second year as an Undine), and Chapter 9 in the manga (during her first year).
  • Bocchi the Rock!: Chapter 17 of the spinoff features Kikuri and Eliza deciding to welcome the new year at Shima's family's Buddhist temple.
  • Digimon Adventure 02: The final battle against BelialVamdemon (MaloMyotismon in the dub) takes place during New Year for symbolic purposes. All the heroic characters make statements about their resolutions for the future.
  • The Disastrous Life of Saiki K.: One New Year's Episode has Nendou, Kaidou, Teruhashi, and Hairo meet Saiki at a shrine; they all wind up invited to Saiki's home. Another has Saiki attempt to buy a new television with his New Year's money. The characters later relate their new year stories.
  • Doki Doki! PreCure: Episode 45 takes place directly on New Years.
  • In Fruits Basket, Yuki and Kyo make a pivotal decision to stay with Tohru for New Year's rather than go to the annual Sohma New Year's Banquet, since it is her first New Year's without her mother. Both anime adaptations dedicated an episode to this plot point.
  • Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt: The finale of Season 2 has the group visiting the Lingerie Land amusement park to spend their New Year celebration. It's also where Panty and Brief start their newfound romantic relationship after Brief confesses to her.
  • Mega Man: Upon a Star has Mega Man join Yuuta and Akane Kobayashi in the New Years greetings, as well as learning about otoshidama.
  • Kokoro Library: The three sisters, Iina, Aruto and Kokoro, pray for good things to happen in the new year — however not exactly the same things.
  • Hayate the Combat Butler: Nagi wants to see the first sunrise of the new year in Kujukurihama. Guess which butler-in-debt has to take her the 100 km (62 miles) there — on bike!
  • Kedamono Damono: Haruki gets a night job as a miko in his female form to earn some money so he can buy a gift to Konatsu. But his partner as miko is also in love with him, and since she does not know the facts she wonders if the good looking girl she is working together with really is the cousin of Haruki as she was told. Mangaka Haruka Fukushima noticed in the afterword that one could say that she only made this story to draw Haruki as a miko.
  • Mao-chan: Alien spies Yuriko and Chinami have disguised themselves as mikos to get people at the shrine to get people to touch one of their cute animals (a big sheep in this case) promising them that their first dream of the year will come true. But touching the sheep in reality puts people to sleep. Which soon leaves Kagome with her hands full since she is the only one of the defence forces not to touch the sheep.
  • Nurse Angel Ririka SOS is subtle about its New Years theme since it doesn't feature the traditional celebrations, but what it does have is the heroes fighting a desperate battle through the night, overcoming a nigh unstoppable villain just as the sun rises, ushering in a new day. The episode in question first aired in early January, is the conclusion of both an arc and a cour, and is very climactic.
  • W Juliet: Makoto celebrates New Year's Eve at Ito's family. Problems however quickly ensue when Ito gets her beloved Wholesome Crossdresser to dress as the boy he is.
  • Sgt. Frog:
    • In one manga chapter, the platoon decides to hold an all night party whilst the Sarge builds one of his Gundam models... except he uses solvent based glue which won't dry fast enough and makes obnoxious fumes when you try to hair dry it, so with the plan of watching the sun rise over his new model nixed they all engage in drinking alcohol and making wishes for the new year. It does not end well.
    • The anime adaptation of the episode had the characters (including the Narrator) wish everyone a happy new year. We then saw the Platoon playing various games (abusing Giroro in the process) and have an evening party... which also does not go well (to the extent Dororo is grateful he has been forgotten).
    • A later manga chapter has the Sarge learn that he has been asleep for nearly a week, has missed New Year's and finds the house completely deserted (or so he thinks, it's revealed in a bonus chapter Kururu was hiding where the Sarge couldn't see him and didn't want to "babysit" him). He comes to the conclusion the Earth was invaded whilst he was asleep, puts on a Pekoponian disguise battlesuit and goes out to fight, only to find the Hinatas went to the temple to get their good luck messages for the year, and the others went home to be with their families.
  • 20th Century Boys has New Year's Eve as the climax (kind of) of the first plot arc.
  • K-On!: The seventh episode and the ova has everyone celebrating the New Year while practicing for a performance.
  • Toradora! takes up the plot on New Year's after a short Time Skip from the Christmas Episode/Wham Episode. It contains evidence that Nothing Is the Same Anymore because Taiga can talk to Yuusaku without stuttering and becoming a Cute Clumsy Girl. It turns out to be because she's over him and has realized she's in love with Ryuuji. A new beginning, of sorts.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura has an episode where she goes to the temple with Tomoyo and gets an odd fortune from Eriol (i.e. one lacking in good luck that he magicked).
  • In Future War 198X, Laura and Wataru are enjoying drinks on the balcony while Watching the Sunset on New Year's Eve, talking about their hopes for the future, right before hearing news that World War III has broken out in Europe.
  • In Kill Me Baby, Yasuna, Sonya, and Agiri use the first school day after New Year to hold a combined New Year, Christmas and Halloween Party.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!: In Cappy New Year, the whole premise of the episode is celebrating a brand new year. At the end of the episode, all the Cappies (including Kirby himself) celebrate the New Year.
  • In Lucky Star Konata and her father visit the shrine of the Hiiragi family on New Year's Eve. Kagami and Tsukasa still have to do their miko duties despite being exhausted from going to Comiket with Konata earlier that day (Winter Comiket is held on New Year's Eve in real life).
  • Kimi ni Todoke's first season ends with a New Year. We have another one in later manga chapters, a year later.
  • Episode 11 of Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid, which covers all the basics; making mochi, shrine and festival visits in kimonos, watching the first sunrise, hatsuyume, hanging out under the kotatsu for days at a time eating oranges, New Year's cards, giving money to children, and complaining about all the anime being on break.
  • Hajime and Kaoru go over to Hajime's parents' house in I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying (they actually go a little early, since Kaoru wanted Kyoko to scold Hajime into getting a job).
  • The first season of High School Star Musical ends with the shrine visit — though not with kimono — and a "See you next year!" greeting exchange between the characters that promises a sequel.
  • In the second season of Yuki Yuna is a Hero, The Hero Club celebrates their new year by traveling to various places. Although, Yuna is desperately trying to hide the curse she's been inflicted is slowly eating her life away.
  • Laid-Back Camp has the cast setting off to see the first sunrise of the new year.
  • Mira, Ao and Ino from Asteroid in Love visits a shrine per the Japanese tradition in the eighth episode. This scene is Played for Drama, however, as Ino finds Ao's off-character behaviour concerning—Ao runs away as Mira loudly prays for their common Goal in Life. It is at this point Ao drops the bombshell that she has bottled up for two months: due to her father's job transfer, she may have to move away from the town by the end of March.
  • In the Ranma ½ manga, the storyline where Shampoo is abducted by the phantom cat and held hostage at a temple is set on New Year’s Eve. The annual Japanese tradition of ringing a temple bell 108 times is an important plot point, but otherwise, the holiday itself doesn’t factor much into the story, and wasn’t even alluded to in the Animated Adaptation.
  • Transformers Go! Go!: An issue celebrating the new year is released on New Year's Day, as on issues 19 and 46.
  • Kaguya-sama: Love Is War very briefly covers New Year's at the end of the "New Game" arc, showing Kaguya's birthday and a shrine visit by Tsubame and Fujiwara.
  • The final episode of Oh, Suddenly Egyptian God has the cast preparing and holding a banquet party to celebrate the New Year, with a talent show and a special idol concert to wrap it up.
  • Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches: Chapter 119 is about the Yamada family's main celebration on New Years' Eve, and chapter 120 is about the Supernatural Studies Club visiting a shrine one of the following days and later hanging out in Itou's apartment.
  • Skip and Loafer: In Chapter 29, Mitsumi returns home to celebrate the new year with her family; they stay up to wait for the turnover. It also focuses on Nao and sheds some light on why she doesn't like coming back home as much.
    Comic Books 
  • Gargoyles: Bad Guys: Issue #4's plot has the team handling an attempt to prevent a coming attack on Time Squares on New Years.
  • Mega Man (Archie Comics): Issue #21 revolves around Mega Man stopping Xander's Emerald Spears from setting off a time-bomb on New Years midnight stroke.
  • The New York Four: The ending of Volume One ends on New Years, with a climactic countdown to top it off. The symbolism of it being a new beginning for Riley.
  • Reid Fleming, World's Toughest Milkman: In an early strip, Reid and the gang attend a New Year's Eve party. Reid meets a bore, smokes some dope, and shouts out "Big Deal" at the stroke of midnight.
  • Superman:
    • Superman (1939) #368, "Superman 2020: Deadly New Year—2021!", featuring Jon Hudson, the Superman of the then-future year 2020, was set during New Year's Eve. Instead of a ball drop, an orbital habitat descended to Earth. The story also featured Guy Lombardo's Royal Canadian Android Orchestra. The character continued to be referred to as "Superman 2020" in the titles of subsequent stories, even though it was now 2021.
    • Worlds Finest 1990 #3 is set at New Year, a week after the Christmas-based previous issue. Luthor and Joker take advantage of the festivities to take revenge on each others' cities.
  • The Vertigo Comics one-shot Totems takes place on New Year's Eve and has John Constantine throw a party where other DC Comics characters who at the time were associated with DC's Vertigo imprint appear as guests (such as Robotman, Swamp Thing, Black Orchid, Rac Shade and Animal Man), the main character of the story being a Conspiracy Theorist named Bernie Madden whose wife left him because of his obsession and attempts to get his ex-wife to take him back by telling her of the unusual adventure he's just had with Constantine's guests.
  • Zot!: A New Year's party reveals a major plot point when the year ticks over from 1965... to 1965. The visitors from Jenny's Earth are the only ones who notice anything wrong; everyone from Zot's Earth says before midnight that next year will be 1966, and after midnight says that last year was of course 1964. This kicks off a storyline that starts to suggest that Zot's Earth may not be entirely real.
    Fan Works 
    Films — Animation 
    Films — Live-Action 
  • The ensemble comedy 200 Cigarettes is set on New Year's Eve in 1981.
  • The Apartment: Fran finally abandons her loathsome married boyfriend at a New Year's party, and rushes over to Baxter's apartment, finding him popping a bottle of champagne just after midnight.
  • Arsène Lupin (2004): The cruise that follows the Time Skip where Arsene steals several jewels happens on a New Year's Eve.
  • Carnival Night: A Russian rec center putting on a big New Year's bash has to thwart the newly installed director, who hates fun and wants to make things dry and boring.
  • Cavalcade opens with the family celebrating New Year 1900 and ends with them celebrating New Year 1933.
  • In The Divorcee, Ted stalks out of a New Year's party after seeing his ex-wife Jerry canoodling with another man. At a different New Year's party, Ted and Jerry get back together, embracing as the balloons fall at midnight.
  • The main heist of Entrapment takes place on New Year's Eve.
  • Forrest Gump: In New Year's Eve 1971-72, Forrest encounters Lt. Dan after appearing on Dick Cavett's show. They see the ball drop on TV together at a crowded bar (via the very first edition of New Year's Rockin' Eve), but Forrest spends his time thinking about Jenny (who leaves his rock drummer boyfriend in the meantime) and the Lieutenant stares blankly while everybody else celebrates (made more heart-breaking since he had joked about Forrest owning a shrimp boat the minute before), with only Forrest wishing him a happy new year. After an incident with some hookers who insulted Forrest, Lt. Dan wishes him a happy new year as well.
  • Four Rooms is an anthology film following a loopy bellboy working a very memorable shift On New Year's Eve as the only employee on staff.
  • The Godfather Part II: A key scene revolves around Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba, which took place on January 1, 1959. On New Year's Eve 1958-1959, Michael discovers Fredo was the one who sold him out to Hyman Roth. Michael confronts him at the New Year's Eve party and gives him a symbolic Kiss of Death. The Cuban Revolution then forces Fredo and Michael to flee back to America.
  • The Gold Rush includes a scene where Charlie Chaplin sets up a New Year's party for the girl he has an unrequited crush on. She doesn't show up. A downcast Charlie then wanders to the local tavern to watch through the window as all the prospectors and prostitutes have a raucous New Year's celebration.
  • Ghostbusters II: the New Year (1989/1990) is a major plot point.
  • Holiday has its first act set on Christmas, its second act on New Year's Eve (with a big party as a centerpiece), and a third act a couple of days later.
  • The Holiday ends on New Year's, as Iris returns to England with Miles to celebrate with her brother's family and Amanda, with the promise of a better future.
  • The Hudsucker Proxy has Bookends at New Year's Eve 1958 and 1959 (supposedly), and a clock motif that's conspicuous throughout the movie.
  • The Irony of Fate is a Russian romantic dramedy classic set on New Year's Eve and early New Year's Day, where a group of friends—after having gotten drunk during an engagement celebration—unknowingly send one of them on the wrong flight home to Leningrad instead of Moscow. The city happens to have a prototype apartment that is nearly identical to his residence in Moscow (right down to the address, and even the door locks), but doesn't realize something is up until he wakes up to the arrivals of the apartment's actual resident, and her fiance.
  • Kolberg: Joachim, the mayor of Kolberg, is in no mood to celebrate New Year's 1807, as he knows the French army is approaching and will be attacking Kolberg soon. His niece Maria still lights the candles on the Christmas tree, though.
  • Last Holiday has its climax and Wham Line take place right on New Year's Eve.
  • New Year's Eve is a romantic comedy following the intersecting events of various characters, all taking place on the titular day.
  • New Year's Evil is a Slasher Movie whose villain kills each time it strikes midnight in a different time zone, with his final designated victim located in LA.
  • Ocean's 11: The 1960 original — Ocean and his gang rob five casinos at once on New Year's.
  • Peter's Friends takes place during New Year's weekend-long reunion between old involving friends from university.
  • The Phantom Carriage: The protagonist David Holm almost dies on New Year's Eve, which would mean that as the last sinner to die in the year, he would be tasked with taking up The Grim Reaper's job. However, he sees how evil he has been in his life and is filled with regret, so he is allowed to resuscitate and go make amends for it for the rest of his life.
  • The Poseidon Adventure, as well as its remake Poseidon, are disaster films set on New Year's Eve.
  • At the end of the film Radio Days, Joe's family celebrates New Year's Eve together at home while Sally spends the night at a lavish ball with other radio personalities.
  • Repeat Performance: After Sheila shoots and kills her husband a few minutes before midnight on December 31, 1946, she wishes she could do the year over again. She somehow gets a magical reset back to January 1, 1946. The climax is Sheila on New Year's Eve 1946 once again, still trying to not kill her husband.
  • The final scene of the gangster film, Shanghai Grand, is set in the new year of 1934. It's also at this very moment where the protagonist gets shot dead by his best friend, in the cover of fireworks going off and a cheering crowd in a background.
  • In School Waltz, Gosha's decision to abandon his wife Dina on New Year's Eve and go out, instead of staying home to celebrate, is what finally convinces her that their marriage is a failure.
  • San Francisco opens with the good folks of the Barbary Coast celebrating New Year's 1905-6. The revels are interrupted by a fire that breaks out an apartment building, which sets up some of the plot and foreshadows the great earthquake and fire at the end.
  • A Simple Plan has the protagonists stumbling across a crashed airplane in the woods with a dead pilot and a bagful of cash.
  • Strange Days: The whole film is set on December 30 and 31 of 1999, with the conclusion taking place at a huge New Year's Eve street party.
  • Sunset Boulevard has Norma Desmond inviting Joe to a New Year's Eve "party" at which he turns out to be the only guest.
  • Terror Train is a Slasher Movie set aboard a train where a bunch of students have come together to celebrate New Year's Eve, not knowing that there's a killer among them.
  • Trading Places had the train party on New Year's Eve, where the group attempts to steal Beeks' reports. The actual climax where Valentine and Winthrope use the report to get rich and ruin the Duke Brothers is close enough, as it takes place January 2.
  • When Harry Met Sally...: Its New Year's scene is so iconic that someone on Twitter suggested starting the film at 10:30:28 pm local time if one wanted to count down to the new year with the movie instead of the ball drop.
    Literature 
  • Around the World in Seventy-Two Days: Bly and her fellow travelers toast the New Year and sing "Auld Lang Syne" while en route from Hong Kong to Yokohama.
  • Ben Snow: "The Edge of the Year 1900" takes place on New Year's Eve 1899, with Ben getting mixed up with a Cult that believes that the world is going to end, and Ben having to solve a murder that occurs on the stroke of midnight.
  • Calamity Town: Rosemary dies from drinking an arsenic-laced cocktail at a New Year's party, just minutes after the stroke of midnight, New Year 1941.
  • City of Bones opens on New Year's Day as LAPD detective Harry Bosch, at the scene of a suicide, reflects on how the holidays always lead to an increase in suicides. Later that day, Bosch gets the call about the bones in the hills which starts the main plot.
  • Discworld's Hogfather: Since Hogswatchnight, in addition to being the Discworld's You Mean "Xmas" festival, is also its New Year's Eve (the name plays on "Hogmanay" and "Watchnight"), this book ends with the Canting Crew hearing the strike of midnight and wishing each other a happy new year.
  • Fear Street:
    • The New Year's Party features a party in 1965 where a cruel prank accidentally leads to three people dying. Thirty years later, a prank by a group of friends seems to have lethal consequences and leads to another deadly New Year's party.
    • The Gift in Fear Street Seniors has Jennifer Fear hosting a New Year's party where Greta Bradley is killed by her skull being cracked open by a heavy ceramic bowl. Jennifer believes she was possessed by her ancestor Dominique Fear and killed Greta. She learns later on Dominique is the killer, but she possessed Trisha Conrad because Trisha's her actual descendant.
  • Flatland: The Square is seeing the New Year with his wife when the Sphere appears to him.
  • In a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, The Golden Demon started publication on New Year 1897 and thus the story begins on a New Year night complete with traditional Japanese New Year customs like kadomatsu and a karuta game.
  • Graveyard School: Boo Year's Eve, the 22nd book in the series, has Jordie "The Human Computer" Flanders dreading Polly Hannah's New Year's party. Her attempts to avoid attending the party lead to her and sister Jessica taking refuge at a mansion in a bad ice storm. Jordie soon learns the mansion's also hosting a New Year's party and is haunted.
  • Holiday Heroes: "New Year Has Come" takes place on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Additionally, Baby New Year/Kia's powers are themed around the holiday. The chapter details Jermaine spending New Year's with Annette, Jillian, and Kia.
  • Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Match Girl takes place on New Year's Eve.
  • Make Room! Make Room! takes place in a future 1999, and ends just after midnight on January 1, 2000.
  • In Mary Poppins Opens the Door, the second-to-last chapter, "Happily Ever After", begins on New Year's Eve, and ends on New Year's Day. During "the crack" in between the first and last strokes of midnight, Mary Poppins and the Banks children attend a party with characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes.
  • Murder for the Modern Girl: The first five chapters of the book take place on New Year's Eve 1927, where in chapter 1 specifically, Ruby poisons Francis Mather's drink as she was determined to not let him live to see 1928.
  • The Night of Wishes: The story took place on New Year's Eve and it was about an evil wizard and an evil witch having difficulties fulfilling their evil quota that year. Their only hope was a wish-granting potion that could only be brewed on New Year's Eve.
  • The entirety of Pippa Passes takes place on New Year's Day. It's the only day off all year for Pippa the silk weaver, who spends it taking a walk through town.
  • Isaac Asimov's "What If— (1952)": The first New Year's celebration after their wedding, Norman accidentally spilled his drink on Liwy and they had to leave early. When they see what might've happened in the timeline where he marries Georgette, he still spills it on Liwy.
  • A Yellow Raft in Blue Water: In Christine's story, she feared The End of the World as We Know It that would come on New Year's Eve when she as a teenager had heard from a Catholic teacher that either Russia was going to convert or else the whole world is doomed. Christine stays up waiting until she falls asleep, New Year's Eve passes, and nothing cosmic happens. This incident is told in all three stories in the book (the final account being Ida's, which closes out the story with Father Hurlburt watching her braid her hair), with Christine telling it to her daughter Rayona as the reason she gave up on religion.
    Live-Action TV 
  • From 1929 to 1976, bandleader Guy Lombardo had an annual New Year's Eve broadcast featuring his band the Royal Canadians, initially from the Roosevelt Hotel's Roosevelt Grill in New York City (where they were the resident band), and later the Waldorf-Astoria. Originally broadcast on CBS radio, the program moved to their television network in 1956, and began covering the festivities in Times Square as well. The band's performance of "Auld Lang Syne" at midnight was their Signature Song, and made it irreversibly associated with the holiday in North America. Lombardo died in November 1977, resulting in his brother Victor Lombardo taking the helm for 1978 and 1979. However, the special's popularity was largely tied to Guy, and the Royal Canadians had a falling out with Victor in 1979 over attempts to change their musical direction. That, and the competition from Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve (which premiered for 1972–73 on NBC, before moving to ABC – where it still airs to this day – two years later), which appealed better to contemporary audiences than Lombardo's increasingly antiquated big band, led CBS to finally dump them for good to welcome 1980.
  • Until 2006 (when a combination of New Year's Eve falling on the weekend, the writers' strike, and the premiere of Carson Daly's own New Year's show ended this practice), NBC aired new episodes of The Tonight Show and Late Night on New Year's Eve. Tonight was a live episode that featured segments (dating back to the 1950s with Ben Grauer) covering festivities from Times Square. Late Night with Conan O'Brien on the other hand – both due to its later time slot and for Rule of Funny – celebrated for Central Time instead, usually preceded by jokes specific to the region, "tributes" to obscure celebrities who had "died" in the past year, and an equally bizarre countdown. One year featured a subplot with correspondents who'd accidentally traveled to South Bend, Indiana (a city in Eastern Time) and got caught in a police chase racing to Hudson Lake (a town that falls on the border between Eastern and Central Time) so that they could celebrate "correctly".
    Conan: The only show with the guts to do it, the creativity to do it... And we're on that late...
  • The BBC has four shows seeing in the New Year. BBC One has a concert special from London and the London Eye fireworks at midnight, BBC Two has, since 1993, had the music show Jools Holland's Hootenanny (with people periodically being scandalised by the "revelation" that it's pre-recorded and always has been), and BBC One Scotland, since Scottish culture traditionally sees this as a bigger deal than Christmas, clears the schedule from 10pm with a light hearted documentary about some aspect of Scottish culture, a sketch show (Scotch and Wry until 1992, then Chewin' the Fat or Only an Excuse?, and since 2021 Queen of the New Year) before culminating with Hogmanay. BBC Alba (a special regional channel that airs Gaelic-language programming) also has its own Hogmanay special, Bliadhna Mhath Ùr (structured as a cèilidh — a type of social event with traditonal folk music and dancing).
    • Hogmanay-themed variety specials were the main attraction on New Year's Eve lineups across both the BBC and ITV from the 1950s to the 1980s, which often featured music (including singers and bagpipe bands), dance, and comedy. The BBC's attempt to make a more contemporary Hogmanay special for 1984-85, Live into 85, was such a disaster that it was regarded as a Genre Killer for nationally-televised Hogmanay specials. It didn't stop the BBC from trying again for 1998-99 however (this time modeled after its regional Hogmanay Live special), with similarly disastrous results
      • Funnily enough, ITV haven't done a New Year's special in ages either — they just put out a special edition of the news to cover the fireworks, which often gets an It's the Same, Now It Sucks! reaction as ITV can't broadcast the actual fireworks, just the countdown.
    • The Hogmanay show was called Hogmanay Live until 2019/20, when it began being prerecorded, except for the firing of the Edinburgh Castle cannon at midnight followed by fireworks. This became particularly clear in 2024/5, when the Edinburgh Hogmanay celebration was cancelled due to yellow weather warnings, but the show was already in the can. It was broadcast with no acknowledgement that the fireworks and cannon weren't happening until midnight, when a caption appeared at the bottom of the screen stating they were reshowing a previous year's version.
  • Spanish media take the "Campanadas de fin de año" really seriously. At 23:59:32 the ball drops from the Reloj de Gobernaciónnote a clock tower in the centre of Madrid, and it goes out on all major channels (though averted with Telecinco, who usually go to a different city). Each network puts its biggest stars out on the broadcast. Then there are four two-tone bells called the "Cuartos", and then Spaniards will eat a grape for each chime of the clock. Contrary to Common Knowledge, the first chime happens on the stroke of midnight, and not the last. Across all networks, the bells never drop below 15 million viewers, and it's often the biggest TV event of the year. Originally public broadcaster TVE had a monopoly on ratings but these days it's a dogfight between them and Antena 3.
    • Ramón García, the host of El Gran Prix del Verano, is Mr. New Year in Spain, and it's a Running Gag that those who grew up watching him on TVE in the 90s can't watch any other channel at New Year. He usually does TVE's broadcast (though notably swapped to Antena 3 for a while in the 2000s).
    • "El vestido de Pedroche"note "Pedroche's dress", which is always extremely elaborate is a big thing on Antena 3 and, regardless of whether they win that year's ratings battle, host Cristina Pedroche's dress is a big thing in Spanish culture, and always gets everyone talking the next morning.
      • Pedrochemania has had a bit of a Hype Backlash in The New '20s, as some find the fascination with what she wears quite perverse, especially as she often employs a bit of Fanservice to go with it. This reached a height in 2024/25, with a more wholesome yet engaging show on TVE, presented by David Broncano and Ensemble Dark Horse, influencer Lala Chús, trouncing Antena 3 in the ratings.
  • The 7 Yüz episode "Büyük Günahlar" is set against the backdrop of a New Year's Eve party.
  • Acapulco: The first season finale is set at the 1984-1985 New Year's Eve party at Las Colinas and accordingly involves several major changes to the status quo.
  • The Avengers (1960s): "Dressed to Kill" takes place on New Year's Eve and sees Steed attend a costume party on a train. The episode ends with Steed and Cathy celebrating the New Year with a vintage bottle of champagne. Steed hopes for many happy years, Cathy quips, "Lets not push our luck, Steed, we barely got through this one".
  • Austin & Ally and Jessie did a Crossover called "Austin & Jessie & Ally All Star New Year", where Austin gets to fulfill his dream of performing in Time's Square on New Year's Eve, and they visit the Rosses where a song Zuri wrote becomes viral.
  • Each season of Babylon 5 lined up with a calendar year in the show's universe, but only the first season finale had the New Year's celebration as a backdrop. This being one of the show's famous Wham Episodes, by the time the ball dropped, quite a few major changes had happened.
  • The Brittas Empire: Although it was released as a Christmas Episode, the plot of “In The Beginning...” is closer to this, featuring the former staff of Whitbury Leisure Centre coming together to celebrate New Year's Eve 2019 whilst flashing back to the time when they spent New Year's Eve 1989 snowed in the centre.
  • El Chavo del ocho: When the residents of La Vencidad had a New Year's party, Don Ramón invited everyone to celebrate at his house because, unlike the others, he wasn't able to contribute in any other way.
  • The Checkmate episode "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Game" takes place at a New Year's Eve party and New Year's Day parade and college football bowl game. In the episode, Jack Benny plays a comedian who is targeted for murder.
  • Designing Women had two of these: "New Year's Daze" in season 1 and the more memorable season 4 two-parter "The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century", when a pregnant Charlene gets a visit from none other than Dolly Parton, who is her "Guardian Movie Star" who guides through her birth and even tell Charlene that she'll give birth to a daughter.
  • Dexter: Season 7 ends with a New Year's party and "Auld Lang Syne" being sung at midnight.
  • Not New Year-related as such but always shown on New Year's Eve in half of Europe: Dinner for One.
  • Doctor Who:
    • "Volcano", the eighth episode of "The Daleks' Master Plan", aired on New Year's Day and ended with the TARDIS dropping in on the New Year festivities in Trafalgar Square.
    • The 1996 TV movie had its main action set around New Year's Eve 1999-2000.
    • "The End of Time Part 2", aired on New Year's Day 2010, featured a scene where the regenerating Tenth Doctor encounters Rose Tyler on January 1, 2005, just months before she would meet the Ninth Doctor. He tells her, "I bet you're going to have a really great year."
    • During the Thirteenth Doctor's run, the show traded its annual Christmas Episode for a New Year's Day episode, partly due to one of the companions, Yaz, being Muslim. In a running theme, they all feature some form of the Daleks. note  On New Year's Day 2020, the first episode of Series 12 was aired instead of a special.
      • "Resolution" (2019), fittingly, is actually set on New Year's Day (2019).
      • "Revolution of the Daleks" (2021) only mentions the holiday in passing, as Graham and Ryan wish Yaz a happy new year. Yaz, who has lost track of time, is unaware New Years had passed.
      • "Eve of the Daleks" (2022) takes place in a time loop just before midnight on New Year's Eve 2021-2022. Making it to New Year's Day is the real challenge!
  • Downton Abbey ends at midnight on January 1, 1927 with all the main characters wishing one another a happy new year.
  • The episode "Sylvesterpunsch" ("New Year's Eve Punch"note The drink in a bowl, not what you do with your fist.) of the German sitcom Ein Herz und eine Seele.
  • Engine Sentai Go-onger had a New Year's episode where the characters were dressed in kimonos. They also broke the Fourth Wall at the start to wish the audience a happy new year. And there were clips of the exploits of the characters over the past year (unfortunately for Gaiark, they were all of their defeats).
  • The Eric Andre Show aired a combination New Year's and Halloween special — the "New Year's Spooktacular" — on December 31, 2012. In typical Eric Andre fashion, it is a surreal Mind Screw with such bits as "The Top Ten Things of 2012" (two of which are Desks) and the "Luther Vandross Wheel", extremely awkward interviews with Omorosa and Demi Lovato, a celebratory riot six minutes after midnight, and concluding with the revelation that the show's entire crew are actually Mayans, who then proceed to sacrifice Andre on live television.
  • Frasier: In season seven's "RDWRER", Frasier and Niles are horrified when the restaurant where they'd planned to spend the 1999-2000 New Year burns down just after Christmas and everywhere else is booked solid. They eventually decide to drive to the Wine Club's gathering in California but shenanigans along the way mean Frasier, Niles, Martin and Eddie spend midnight standing on the side of the road in their tuxedos. Even that's cut short when they hear a coyote howling which sends them running back to the Winnebago.
  • Friends had a couple of New Year's episodes, the most notable one being where Joey kissed Chandler.
    • "The One with the Resolutions" has a fairly standard plot of the gang making various resolutions, almost all of which fail miserably, but is more noteable as the point where Rachel inadvertently learns about Chandler and Monica's secret romance.
    • "The One With the Routine" has Janine invite Joey, Monica, and Ross to the tapings for the concert segments on New Year's Rockin' Eve, where Monica and Ross try to get on-camera by performing an old dance routine from high school.note (The first two editions of NYRE actually aired on NBC, before moving to its current home on ABC).
  • The Full House episode "Happy New Year", where Joey meets the girl of his dreams during a New Year's celebration.
  • The How I Met Your Mother episodes "The Limo" and "Tailgate" both feature the characters celebrating New Year's.
    • In "The Limo", taking place on New Year's Eve 2005, Ted rents a limo for the gang in order to hit as many New Year's parties in New York as possible. Hilarity Ensues.
    • In "Tailgate", taking place on New Year's Day 2012, Marshall visits his father's grave in order to continue their tailgating tradition, telling him about what happened on New Year's Eve the night before.
  • Inspector George Gently: "Son of a Gun" has the killer apprehended just before midnight on 31 December 1969. The episode then ends with the team celebrating on 1 January 1970, which is also the day that Rachel Coles' promotion to Detective Sergeant becomes official.
  • The Jessie & Austin & Ally crossover "Austin, Jessie, & Ally's All Star New Years".
  • Kamen Rider Den-O also had one where the characters dressed in kimonos and received fortunes from the temple.
  • The Liv and Maddie season 2 episode, "New Years Eve-a-Rooney".
  • The Louie third-season finale takes place on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day.
  • The Mad Men episode "The Doorway" ends with Dec. 31-Jan. 1, 1967-68. Don and Megan have some neighbors over for a New Year's party.
    • in the episode "The Good News" Don and Lane, after finding each other drowning their sorrows in the office, go for a night out on the town on New Year's Eve 1964.
  • The M*A*S*H episode "A War for All Seasons" encompasses a year in the life of the 4077th, bracketed by a pair of New Year's celebrations.
  • The well-known 1970's version of Match Game on CBS (which had the year in its title, i.e. Match Game '74) had New Year's episodes culminating with the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" and the unveiling of an updated logo sign to reflect the new year.
  • Mr. Bean in "Do-It-Yourself Mr. Bean" also celebrates New Year's and has invited a pair of friends for it. However, he's such a lousy host they fast forwarded his clock to leave early and join another party.
  • My So-Called Life had a New Year's Episode called, appropriately enough, "Resolutions", which starts with most of the characters (except Jordan, who's in his car) watching the ball drop in Times Square on TV, and all making resolutions — Angela wants to stop being self-obsessed (and stop doing Jordan's homework), Brian wants to stop obsessing about Angela, Rayanne wants to stop drinking once and for all, Rickie wants to find somewhere he belongs, Patti wants to stop nagging Graham, Graham wants to keep Hallie from persuading him to get involved in the restaurant she wants to open, Danielle wants to persuade her parents to let her wear makeup, Sharon wants to stop sleeping with her on-again off-again boyfriend Kyle (who wants to spend more time with Sharon), and Mr. Katimski wants to give up coffee. The rest of the episode deals with how the characters try to keep those resolutions.
  • Nightwatch (2015): S1 E9 is set on New Year's Eve.
  • "The Countdown" episode of The O.C. (Season 1). Date anxiety, check!
  • Odd Squad: "Party of 5, 4, 3, 2, 1" takes place on New Year's Eve, and Ms. O is preparing to countdown at the town's New Year party.
  • The series finale of Pyros (a reality show following a Quebec-based pyrotechnics company) has their crew split between New Year's celebrations in Quebec City and Rio de Janeiro, dealing with local celebrations and contributing to Copacabana Beach's famously huge fireworks display.
  • Revenge: The flashback episode "Legacy" in season 1, all about how Emily/Amanda first got started on her revenge scheme, is set on New Year's Eve 2002.
  • A Rhoda episode has Rhoda throwing a New Year's party, with the twist that everyone dons a Halloween mask. (Including, naturally, Carlton the doorman.)
  • Sesame Street:
    • The 1993 TV special Sesame Street Stays Up Late!, which would be renamed Sesame Street Celebrates Around the World for home media. Among the occurrences are Baby Bear learning what it means when the new year comes, Telly being scared by Oscar into thinking the end of the year means time will stop and the world will end, and Big Bird trying to wake a sleeping Snuffy so he doesn't miss the big moment. The special also features six segments showing New Year's Eve celebrations from around the world, which are cross overs with international versions of the show.
    • A Season 49 episode has the street gang throw a party on New Year's Eve, but Elmo is getting sleepy and worries he will miss the midnight strike, so the other Muppets try to help keep him awake. Elmo ends up falling asleep anyway but takes a short nap with his alarm set so he wakes up in time.
  • The Son of a Critch episode "Happy 1990" naturally takes place on December 31, 1989, with Mark babysitting at home while his parents go on a double date to a New Year's party.
  • Torchwood: The latter half of Jack's flashback in "Fragments" takes place on New Year's Eve 1999, complete with a reference from Jack about fighting a Millennium Bug. The celebrations don't go well for him as he finds his team members dead at the hands of his own boss, who thrusts leadership of Torchwood Three on to Jack before killing himself.
  • Veronica Mars: In the second season episode "One Angry Veronica", near the end, Veronica and Keith are watching the New Year's Eve celebration on TV, but Keith decides to go to bed early instead of watching it, and with all of the stuff Veronica's been dealing with (she had to do Jury Duty, which was not a good experience, and Meg died), she's not feeling it. However, there's a knock at the door, and it turns out to be Wallace, her best friend, who's come back after they had a fight. She hugs him while crying Tears of Joy, and the episode ends with the two of them watching the celebration, and Veronica admitting she's willing to give "this New Year's thing" another shot.
  • The X-Files had "Millennium" as its New Year's episode. As suggested by the name, it aired in 1999 and is about superstition surrounding the new millenium. Perhaps surprisingly, it doesn't have to do with Y2K.note "Millennium" had already done the Y2K bug in a third-season episode. It does have to do with religious fanatics using zombies to bring about the end of the world. In true X-Files style. "Millennium" pulls double duty as not only an X-Files episode, but the series finale to Millennium (1996), another Chris Carter show. It also marks the first kiss between Mulder and Scully, just as the clock strikes midnight.
  • The Season 7 ER episode "Piece Of Mind'' takes place on New Year's Eve, despite actually airing a few days later. It ends with fireworks going off as the new year is rung in.
    Magazine 
  • Torchwood: The Official Magazine: The short story "Happy New Year" features Ianto investigating a case involving an elderly man and a cloning device on New Year's Eve.
    Music 
  • "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?", recorded by numerous artists, with Ella Fitzgerald's version being perhaps the best known.
  • "Happy New Year" by ABBA. If you just listen to the chorus, it appears to be a celebration of better times to come, but the verses are about how New Year optimism always turns to disappointment in the end.
  • "Un Año Más" (One More Year) by Mecano. The lyrics describe the last few minutes of the current year, cherishing the good moments but also remembering those who passed away.
  • "New Year's Day" by U2, with the refrain "nothing changes on New Year's Day", with its lyrics being about the Polish Solidarity movement around that time.
  • "New Year's Day" by Taylor Swift, about being with somebody she cares about after the party celebrating the New Year is over.
  • "New Year's Day" by Bon Jovi.
  • "It's Just Another New Year's Eve" by Barry Manilow.
  • "Maybe Baby (New Year's Day)" by Sugarland.
  • "My Dear Acquaintance (Happy New Year)" by Regina Spektor.
  • "Let's Start The New Year Right" by Bing Crosby.
  • "New Year's Resolution" by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas.
  • "Funky New Year" by the Eagles.
  • "The New Year" by Death Cab for Cutie.
  • "New Year's Day" by Pentatonix.
  • "New Year's Eve" by Tom Waits.
  • "11:59 (It's January)" by Scrawl.
  • "Bringing In a Brand New Year" by Charles Brown.
  • "New Year's Eve" by Snoop Dogg.
  • "Ding Dong, Ding Dong" by George Harrison, explicitly written to be a New Year's singalong.
  • "3 Minutes 'Til New Years" by Sia.
  • "Sorry to See You Go" by June Christy.
  • "Happy New Year" by Judy Garland (not to be confused with the aforementioned ABBA song).
    Pro Wrestling 
  • The Japanese Wrestling Association had the JWA New Year International Competitions in the 1960s. After splitting off, All Japan Pro Wrestling had the New Year Giant Series, to which New Japan Pro-Wrestling responded with the New Year Golden Series. AJPW used to have the New Year NWA Series but that stopped after both it and NJPW split off from the NWA.
  • Dragon Gate had the Primal Gate series at the start of every year until it was replaced with Open The New Years Gate series.
  • CZW New Year New Opportunities
  • TNA iMPACT! 287: New Year's Eve Knockout Special (which wasn't an all women's show for those of you familiar with TNA terminology, but they were the ones predominately featured)
  • ZERO1 Wrestler's 8 - New Year Gigs
  • Great Canadian Wrestling has its New Years Evil events.
  • Fight The World's New Years Nightmare.
  • Ganko Pro's New Years Manly Battle
  • Coastal Championship Wrestling's Homicidal New Year (yes Sabu was prominently featured, why do you ask?)
  • DDT New Year's Gift Special
  • NOAH New Year Navigation
  • Dramatic Dream Team: The New Year's Gift Special...specials, they celebrate it.
    Radio 
  • Our Miss Brooks: The episodes "Old Clothes for Party" and "Babysitting New Years Eve" take place at New Years.
  • You'll Have Had Your Tea: The Doings of Hamish and Dougal had a Hogmanay Special, notable in that the guests at the Laird's Hogmanay party were played by people other than the four main actors. (The other regulars on I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, newsreader Jim Naughtie as Mrs Naughtie's son, and Sandi Toksvig as a very tall golfer.)
    Hamish: Och, we never celebrate Hogmanay.
    Dougal: No, we do not. It clashes with New Year's Eve.
    Theatre 
  • Alison's House takes place on the afternoon and evening of December 31, 1899. Much thought is given to the changing times that are symbolized by the dawn of a new century.
  • The first couple of songs in the second act of RENT deal with the new year and how the characters succeed or fail in changing their lives: Maureen trying to win back Joanne, Roger choosing to believe in The Power of Love, Mimi failing to quit heroin.
    Video Games 
  • Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War: The final mission takes place on December 31. Specifically, 15 years before the Final Boss of the last game... To signify the coming of a new era.
  • In Animal Crossing, The Villager and the other residents gather together to count down for the new year with a timer and festivities; from New Leaf onward, the celebrations are hosted by Isabelle and Redd, and in New Horizons, Redd is replaced with Tom Nook.
  • Several events in Blue Archive take place on New Year's:
    • New Years' Rhapsody No. 68 has Problem Solver 68 head to a shrine said to grant wishes for anyone that donates, due to Aru wanting to impress bigshots in the underworld by flashing a lot of cash. But when the donation box is stolen, they find themselves caught in the scramble to get it back.
    • A Game Before the New Year's Feast sees the Gourmet Research Society trying to save a restaurant they enjoyed eating at from getting shut down due to pressure from a shady food company. In order to help them, they enlist Fuuka and Juri to help them save the restaurant in the only way chefs and food lovers should, a cooking competition
    • In Cyber New Year's March, Chihiro, tired of the rest of the rest of Veritas being sedentary and spending too much time in front of the computer, has them set out on a camping trip to hike up a mountain and see the first sunrise of the year.
    • Secret Midnight Party: The Chimes of Tag has Sensei working on some important year-end accounting on New Year's Eve, only to abandon work to play around with a bored Koyuki, who once again is spending time in the Self-Reflection Room. But when Yuuka and Noa suddenly return, they find themselves in a sudden game of hide-and-seek with them as they try to escape the Seminar building to avoid getting punished for stealing Seminar funds to buy trading cards and abandoning work to goof off.
  • The Curse of Monkey Island: When Guybrush speaks with Palido Domingo and asks him how long he's been lying in Brimstone Beach trying to get a tan, Palido will tell him he's been there since seven months prior to the current month and date on your computer clock. If you asked him in August, for example, he'll say, "Since January." Ask him in January, however, and he'll not only say, "Since June," but he will also wish Guybrush a Happy New Year.
  • GRID Legends: The final chapter of Driven to Glory takes place in a decisive race held in Strada Alpina at exactly on New Year's Eve, on December 31, 2021, where both Seneca Racing and Ravenwest Motorsport go for a title fight who'll become the GRID World Series champion.
  • The final Encore of Guitar Hero World Tour's Career Mode takes place directly on New Year's Day in Times Square, with the cutscene preceding the last song showing the Times Square Ball reaching the bottom and plenty of fireworks going off.
  • Hotel Mario: Starting the game on New Years has the "Here We Go" screen instead says "Happy New Year" on January 1.
  • Jigsaw: The story begins and ends on New Year's. Specifically, it begins on New Year's Eve, 1999, and ends on New Year's Day, 1900.
  • Magia Record: Puella Magi Madoka Magica Side Story: The 2018 New Year Event introduces a special holiday-themed version of Madoka, as well as plots where the characters say their New Year's wishes and participate in contests.
  • Averted in Melody. Even though the story references both Christmastime and a Valentine's Day knockoff, New Year’s Day is not mentioned once.
  • Persona:
  • The Cold Cold Heart DLC for Batman: Arkham Origins takes place around New Year's Eve.
  • The pre-titles level of James Bond 007: NightFire is a way-cool rail-shooter/driving level through the streets of Paris on New Year's Eve.
  • Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials and Tribulations: Recipe for Turnabout takes place soon after New Years, resulting in many references in the Japanese version. For example, examining the orange on the playground results in Maya reminsicing about her New Year's tradition of eating oranges and osechi while watching TV. In the English localization, she instead talks about eating oranges to not get a cold during the winter.
  • In R4: Ridge Racer Type 4, the final race of the Real Racing Roots '99 championship takes place at 11:45 PM on New Year's Eve 1999. Fireworks signaling the start of a new millennium begin on the final lap.
  • Ridgeside Village: The "Ember of Resolution" festival, which takes place on Winter 28; villagers from both Pelican Town and Ridgeside Village gather to wish each other well for the new year, culminating with lighting the resolution's bonfire.
  • Every New Year in Dragalia Lost, emissaries from Hinomoto travel across the world to spread good fortune at the behest of Amaterasu. There are three such events related to these visits.
    • Fortune From Afar, involving Ieyasu of the Boar Clan and his merry band of adventurers.
    • A Clawful Caper, where Mitsuhide of the Mouse Clan and her band pursue blessings stolen by the cat dragon Ebisu.
    • Cursed Connections, where the villainous Doman impersonates a member of the Ox Clan and infiltrates the Halidom to elude pursuit by a band led by the onmyoji Seimei, who also leads the Ox Clan. This is immediately followed by Fortune's Fray, where a tournament of fighters all gather to spread knowledge of Hinomoto's culture.
  • Yakuza: Like a Dragon: Most of Chapter 1 takes place on New Year's Eve, and Ichiban himself was born and Switched at Birth on New Years.
  • YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG: The climax of the story occurs on New Year's Eve as the team head towards the city to face the apocalyptic entity and save the world from destruction.
    Web Animation 
  • Animator vs. Animation: On Dec 31st 2022, Alan published "Fireworks - An Actual Short" where the main characters are watching a fireworks scene with a Note Block instrumental version of Auld Lang Syne celebrating the end of the year 2022 and the start of 2023.
  • AstroLOLogy: In "A Flaming New Year", Capricorn goes through hell just to get a fire to light some fireworks for New Year's Eve, first running out of matches, trying fruitlessly to start a fire in other ways, and then getting his pants set ablaze trying to get a fire from a torch that Aries was carrying.
  • GTW's Big Shiny New Year's Rockin' Eve is a short animated video where several characters are watching a clock tower chime on New Year's Eve, only for it to turn all of them into babies immediately after the fireworks.
  • League Of Newbies: There are annual Chinese New Year episodes, where the heroes instead hang around and celebrate the coming of Chinese New Year.
  • Puyo Puyo Happy!!: Episode 8, the first episode released in 2026, has Arin and Ralph sing the New Year's rhyme "Oshōgatsu" (お正月, "New Year").
  • SMG4's Mario Bloopers, starting from 2013, has a New Year's episode at the end of each year. So far there has been Ssenmodnar 6 (New Year's Edition) (2013), SM64: The Retardness of 2014 (2014) and SM64: Retarded Recap 2015 (2015).
  • TailsTube: Episode 10 is all about Tails counting down the last three minutes of the year and asking his friends about their New Year's resolutions. A specific year is never given in Tails' countdown for the occasion.
  • Turnabout Jackpot: The story takes place from New Year's Eve to January 4. The tournament was supposed to take place on New Year's Day, but the death of The Masked Stranger postponed it.
    Webcomics 
  • Avalon: In Grades 11 and 12, the gang has a New Year's Eve party at Alison's, and drama doesn't take a break for holidays.
  • Buuza: The first episode is titled 'New Year's Eve, 1997'. It is an arc spanning around 4 installations, and ends at midnight. The next episode is centered around New Year's Day, next year. These arcs set the stage for the rest of the story and introduce the main characters.
  • R.A.M. the Robot: "New Year in Space" has Jake, R.A.M. and Jeanette fly by Sol III, aka Earth, on New Year's day of 2504.
  • Spider-Verse Unlimited (2022): "Jackpot Question" is a New Year's Eve plot, with Madame Webb seeing visions of the future at a NYE party.
  • Square Root of Minus Garfield: Starting with 2016, some comics celebrate New Year's and New Year's Eve. Of course, they're posted on the appropriate day in real life.
    Web Original 
  • Economy Watch: The Season 3 premiere, "New Year Token", was a New Year special.
  • Pop Team Epic en Chileno: One version of the bed gag shows Popuko preparing for New Year's parties, only to be trapped by the bed and go to sleep early.
  • Sanders Sides: In "A New Year of Lying to Myself... In Song!", Thomas and the Sides discuss how to make reasonable New Years resolutions.
  • Stupid Mario Brothers: In one episode which Mario & Luigi celebrate the New Year and Wario is desperate to join them (noting the episode is non canon as a reason to join them) but is left with a hobo.
  • Tsukiuta's twitter short stories show the characters' daily lives, including how they spend holidays like New Years. Of note is the January representative Hajime, who comes from an important (essentially aristocratic) family that has large-scale formal ceremonies for the new year, which he, as the young heir, must attend.
    Western Animation 
  • 6teen has "Midnight Madness" in which nobody in the gang has plans for New Years Eve so they all beg Jen to have a party at her house.
  • [adult swim]:
  • An advertisement👁 Image
    for Aqua Teen Hunger Force shows Carl celebrating New Years 2002 with Brak from Space Ghost Coast to Coast. Brak asks Carl what were his best times during 2002, which shows a Clip Show of Carl's not-so pleasant moments.
  • Arthur: In "Arthur's New Year's Eve", Arthur has never stayed up on New Year's Eve until he hears wild stories from his friends about what happens at midnight. Prunella claims there's a big green flash in the sky, Francine claims the New Years Police show up to arrest anyone who didn't throw away last year's calendar, Binky claims there's a wresting match on TV between an old man and a baby, and Buster claims all the parents going out on New Year's are really attending a big meeting where they come up with new ways to be rotten to kids. In the end, Arthur end up falling asleep at 11:30 and was sleeping so soundly that no one wanted to wake him before then, thus he misses the midnight strike anyway.
  • Batman:
    • Batman: The Animated Series: The episode "Holiday Knights" includes a segment where The Joker threatens to gas all the revelers in Gotham Square precisely at midnight. Batman, naturally, saves the day and afterwards meets Commissioner Gordon for coffee (a New Year's tradition carried over from the comics).
    • The Batman (2004): In the episode "Seconds", the Bat-team hurry to stop a criminal called Francis Grey who can invoke Save Scumming from setting off a poison-gas bomb on New Year's Day. Even though they failed in stopping the bomb, Franchise got sent into a traumatic shock so heavily upon witnessing his son die, he sent himself back in time to before he became a criminal, making him do a Heel–Face Turn and saving the New Year celebration.
  • The Big City Greens episode "Big Resolution" revolves around the Greens celebrating New Year's Eve and Cricket helping Gloria fulfill her resolution of confessing her love to her longtime crush Kevin.
  • BoJack Horseman: The episode "Old Acquaintance" is set around New Year's.
  • Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Right at the end of "Two Futures, Part 2". Linka brings out a small electronic keyboard and sings out "Auld Lang Syne", and in a few moments the Planeteers join in the song for the new year.
  • City Island (2022): "Celebration" is about the Island preparing to celebrate the new year.
  • Cyberchase:
    • In "Starlight Night", all the stars in Cyberspace get refreshed for the new year on the titular holiday and citizens from all over cyberspace celebrate together.
    • In "A Reboot-Eve to Remember", the residents of Cyberspace are getting ready to celebrate Reboot Eve — their version of New Year’s Eve complete with the annual ball rise and Reboot resolutions.
  • Doug: In "Doug's Midnight Kiss", Doug's getting ready to steal a kiss from Patti at Beebee's New Year's eve party.
  • Family Guy has "Da Boom", where Lois has her New Year's Eve party interrupted by a paranoid Peter, who fears the end of the world at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve 1999. After it does indeed happen, the Griffins must now survive in the post-nuclear town of Quahog, that is until the episode ends and it was All Just a Dream.
  • On Fancy Nancy, the episode "New Year's Nancy" takes place on New Year's Eve. Nancy tries staying up until midnight on New Year's Eve, but she finds it difficult. In the end, she falls asleep, and is initially disappointed, but comes to realize that she at least has fun.
  • Futurama:
    • The show's first episode ("Space Pilot 3000") initially takes place on December 31, 1999; Fry — a Loser Protagonist facing various struggles in his life — gets sent on a pizza delivery to the offices of a company named Applied Cyrogenics. After realizing it was likely a prank (given that it was addressed to "I. C. Wiener"), Fry ends up staying and having a toast to "another lousy millennium" ... until an accident with a noisemaker causes him to fall into a cryogenic chamber and be frozen for 1000 years, emerging on the verge of the 31st century. Apparently New Year's Rockin' Eve is still on the air in 2999, now hosted by Dick Clark's head preserved in a jar.
    • A later episode, "The Why of Fry", reveals that it was actually Nibbler that had knocked Fry into the chamber so that he could be tasked with defeating the Brain Spawn, as his lack of a Delta brainwave made him immune to the Brains' attacks. The Brain Spawn gives Fry a chance to return to December 31, 1999, to prevent his past self from being sent to the 31st century, but is talked out of it by Nibbler after realizing Leela would be killed by the Brains if he didn't get sent to the future. This time around, it's Fry who tips himself into the chamber.
  • The Grojband episode "Curse of the Metrognome" is set on New Year's Eve (or rather a second one ordered by the mayor due to a misprint in the town's official calendar). Grojband prepares to perform at the midnight countdown until Trina awakens the magical Metrognome to steal their timing so she can get her New Year's Kiss with Nick Mallory without Grojband's presence ruining her moment. There does end up being a kiss, but it's between Corey and Laney. The Once per Episode song is even a rock n' roll rendition of "Auld Lang Syne".
  • Hailey's On It!: The first episode "The Beginning of the Friend", has a flashback taking place on New Years shortly before Hailey meets The Professor and learns how her list will save the world.
  • There is a season 4 episode of Harvey Girls Forever called "Crush 4U, Where RU?", it takes place on New Year's Eve, and premiered nine days after New Year's Day 2020. The ending has fireworks exploding along with the new year ringing in. Also, the holiday is mentioned by nobody for this episode.
  • The Heckle and Jeckle cartoon "Sappy New Year" (1961) had the two birds swearing off practical jokes as a New Year's resolution. But when their attempts to do good deeds are misinterpreted as mischief, Heckle starts to revert back.
  • King of the Hill: "Hillennium" is a Christmas Episode centering around the Y2K bug that ends as the New Year begins.
  • Little Bear has the episode "Dance Steps" in which the titular character and all his friends and family assemble in Grandfather Bear's house for a New Year's party. Little Bear provides them with homemade paper hats and everyone vows to stay awake until midnight. Following a feast, they all dance the waltz to pass the time and count off as the clock strikes its hours. But at midnight, only Little Bear and his friends are awake to see the new year, while the grownups all sleep.
  • In the classic Looney Tunes short "The Wabbit Who Came to Supper", there is a scene where Bugs Bunny makes Elmer think it's New Year's when his grandfather clock strikes 12, but while they sing "Auld Lang Syne", Elmer notices that his calendar and realizes that it's July.
  • Max and Ruby: On "Max's New Year", Max, Ruby and Grandma are getting ready for the New Year. Max wants to eat the special cookies before midnight, and Ruby must stop him.
  • Though not focusing on New Year's Eve entirely, Ned's Newt has "New Year's Ned", which is about Ned attempting to give up his Baby New Year position to someone else.
  • The Peanuts special Happy New Year, Charlie Brown centered around a New Year's party that Charlie Brown couldn't enjoy because he was assigned to write a comprehensive book report on War and Peace over Christmas Vacation. He ends up missing the midnight strike and a dance with the Little Red-Haired Girl, and to top it all off, he gets an 'D-' on his report. He does get a kiss from Marcie, however.
  • Phineas and Ferb has the season 4 episode "Happy New Year!", where the titular duo engineers their own ball drop, Candace attempts not to bust her brothers before midnight until a Loophole Abuse causes her to relapse, and Dr. Doofenshmirtz attempts to employ his Resolution-Changer-Inator to force people to make him ruler of the Tri-State Area.
  • The PJs has the third season episode entitled "Scarthroat". When Sanchez is the only resident of the Projects to prepare for Y2K, Thurgood and the other residents render him the outcast, that is until the strike of midnight brings a power outage and food shortage to the Projects and he is now the one to lord over the distribution of his rations.
  • Regular Show has such an episode; "New Year's Kiss", where Rigby (on the advice of his future self) has to stop Mordecai from kissing a girl that he's not supposed to. It ends up a Wham Episode as CJ kisses Mordecai, setting her up as a new love interest for him.
  • Robot Chicken: One skit involves a man making his New Year resolution to quit drinking, until Baby New Year arrives to assassinate him for drinking champagne at midnight.
  • The Simpsons:
    • A Treehouse of Horror storyline, "Life's a Glitch Then you Die", centered on the then-upcoming Millennium Bug doomsday scenario. True to form, the world ends on New Year’s Day because of Homer’s incompetence, and in a Cruel Twist Ending, he and Bart die of Explosive Decompression trying to escape Earth. And Dick Clark was actually a cyborg all along.
    • "The Trouble with Trillions" begins as almost all of Springfield celebrates the New Year. The ball starts dropping, but then gets stuck at 8, so Chief Wiggum shoots the ball as the crowd speedily counts down and it bursts into flames upon landing. It's almost all of Springfield, because Flanders and Maude are asleep, and Flanders immediately wakes up after midnight to do his taxes.
  • The Spectacular Spider-Man: "Shear Strength" occurs on New Year's. Featuring plenty of date anxiety as Mary Jane schemes for Peter and Gwen to be together at midnight.
  • Sonic Boom: The episode "New Year's Retribution" is about New Year's Eve, which Eggman is trying to fulfill his resolution from the previous year; to beat Sonic.
  • In the South Park episode "Are You There God? It's Me, Jesus", Jesus Christ and the entire town await the arrival of God on New Year's Eve 1999. As a way of making his dad proud of Him, Jesus invites everyone to spend New Year's Eve in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, Cartman and the other boys are convinced that they just got their periods which later turns out to be a colon infection. God does finally arrive (looking quite unlike normal depictions of God) and allows the townspeople to ask one question, which is asked by Stan who asks why he's the only one who isn't getting his period. God points out to Stan that biological males can't have periods, only females can.
  • Steven Universe:
    • "Maximum Capacity", while focusing on the past relationship between Greg and Amethyst, takes place on New Year's Eve. Incidentally, New Year's is the only real-life holiday known to exist In-Universe.
    • Similarly, "Together Alone", which actually aired on New Year's Eve, focuses on the prospect of a new Era for Homeworld.
  • Vampirina has a variant of this with "New Century's Eve". The titular holiday has all the makings of New Year's Eve, but just done every century. The episode has Vee trying to be a helpful monster and making sure that everyone keeps their resolutions.
  • WordGirl: "Hello New Year, Goodbye Moon". While the Botsfords celebrate New Years Eve with the greatest party ever, Dr. Two Brains plans to turn the moon into cheese.
  • Work It Out Wombats!: "Happy New Acorn Year" revolves around New Years Eve, and this year, the wombats are allowed to stay up to watch the ball drop.
  • Wunschpunsch: The episode "Night of Wishes", directly adapted from the book the series is based on, takes place on New Year's Eve.
  • Young Justice (2010) had a couple: the season 1 finale "Auld Acquaintance", featuring some new year's kisses, followed by the season 2 premiere "Happy New Year!", though it takes place on January 1st, five years later.
  • The ZhuZhus: "Zhu Year's Eve" has Frankie, her parents and the Zhus celebrating New Year's Eve and she tries to stay up until midnight, when she finds difficult. She ends up falling asleep, but her parents and the Zhus wake her up just in time for the countdown.

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The villager and the island's residents celebrate the arrival of the new year.

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Main / NewYearHasCome

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Happy New Year!

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Cappy New Year

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Happy New Year!

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Dick's New Year

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New Year's 1990

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Big Resolution

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Happy New Year!

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Have a Happy Ne...

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