SMALL PLATES, BIG NIGHT

Make the menu the New Year’s Eve event, and keep the food going all through the evening, with small-portion courses that guests can take turns prepping in the kitchen— accompanied by friends and perfectly paired wines.

A NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTY is always one of the best get-togethers of all, but it’s guaranteed to be a long evening. After all, everyone has to stay until midnight has come and gone, and a Champagne toast can rekindle conviviality into the wee small hours. A smart host knows to pace things out. Stretch dinner into a series of well-separated courses with a fair bit of time in between. And no one wants to sit at a dinner table for four hours, so use different parts of your home for each course.

Our menu is designed with this plan in mind. Serve our roasted pear salad in the kitchen perhaps, with guests standing informally around the island. Move to the living room for our broiled oysters then, at last, to the dinner table for the main courses of lollipop lamb chops and bow-tie pasta. For dessert, move back to the living room.

Party games and pastimes are a centuries-old tradition, especially at this time of the year, now eagerly revived by millennials. We have some fun suggestions along those lines, as well.