New Year’s Eve Messages: 45+ Things to Write

New Year’s Eve messages fall into two camps: the ones sent at 11:58pm to everyone in your phone, and the ones actually worth reading. Here are 45+ of the second kind.

Send yours in a free holiday ecard.

Quick New Year’s Eve messages

1. Happy New Year! Wishing you a brilliant one.
2. Here is to the year ahead. Happy New Year!
3. Happy New Year to you and yours.
4. Wishing you health, happiness and a very good year.
5. Happy New Year! Hope tonight is a good one.
6. Cheers to the new year. Have a great night.
7. Happy New Year! See you on the other side.
8. Wishing you everything good in the year ahead.
9. Happy New Year! Enjoy tonight.
10. Here is to a better one. Happy New Year.
11. Happy New Year! Thinking of you as the year turns.
12. Wishing you a wonderful new year.

Reflective messages

1. Thank you for being part of my year. Here is to the next one.
2. Whatever this year was, you got through it. That counts.
3. Here is to a year that is kinder than the last.
4. Grateful for you this year. Happy New Year.
5. A new year, and a clean page. Make it a good one.
6. Thank you for the year. Genuinely — you made it better.
7. Here is to less of what did not work and more of what did.
8. Wishing you a year with fewer surprises and better ones.
9. New year, same friendship. Very glad about that.
10. Here is to twelve months of good things finding you.

Funny messages

1. Happy New Year! Resolutions last until roughly the 4th. Pace yourself.
2. Here is to a new year and the same bad habits.
3. Happy New Year! Let us pretend we will go to the gym.
4. New year, new me. Same me, obviously, but newer.
5. Happy New Year! I will see you at midnight, or 10.30, realistically.
6. Cheers! Here is to another year of nearly having it together.
7. Happy New Year! Trying to stay awake until midnight like it is an achievement.
8. New year, same group chat. Nothing changes and I like it that way.

For someone who has had a hard year

1. This year asked a great deal of you. Here is to an easier one.
2. I know this year was brutal. Thinking of you as it ends.
3. Whatever the new year brings, you are not doing it alone.
4. Here is to leaving this one behind. Thinking of you.
5. You got through a very hard year. That is not nothing.
6. Wishing you a gentler twelve months. You have earned them.
7. Thinking of you tonight. New Year’s Eve is hard when the year was.
8. Here is to better. I will be here for it either way.

For family and friends far away

1. Happy New Year from a different time zone. Thinking of you all.
2. Raising a glass to you from here. Happy New Year.
3. Happy New Year! Missing you all as the year turns.
4. Wishing I were there tonight. Happy New Year.
5. Happy New Year to everyone at home. See you in the new year, properly.
6. Thinking of you all tonight. Happy New Year.

Short messages

1. Happy New Year!
2. Here is to the next one.
3. Have a great night.
4. Cheers to a good year.
5. Happy New Year to you all.
6. See you on the other side.
7. Wishing you a brilliant year.
8. Onwards!

How to write it

1. Say something specific about the year gone. It separates your message from the forty identical ones arriving at midnight.
2. Send it earlier in the evening. Messages at 12:01 land in a pile nobody reads properly.
3. Be careful with “new year, new you”. For someone having a hard time it reads as pressure.
4. Acknowledge a bad year rather than glossing it. “Here is to an easier one” beats forced optimism.

Send it — and pair it with a gift

A free holiday ecard works on the night. See also New Year wishes and New Year business messages:

FAQ

What do you write for New Year’s Eve?

Something specific about the year just gone, plus a wish for the next. Specificity is what separates it from the midnight pile.

When should you send it?

Earlier in the evening. Messages sent at midnight arrive alongside everyone else’s and get skimmed.

What do you say to someone who has had a bad year?

Acknowledge it plainly and wish them a gentler one. Forced optimism reads badly to someone who has had a hard twelve months.

Is New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day better for messages?

Either. An evening message on the 31st or a quiet one on the 1st both beat a midnight group text.

What is a good short message?

“Happy New Year! Wishing you a brilliant one.”

Should you mention resolutions?

Only lightly. Joking about them is fine; implying someone needs to change is not.