Where To Celebrate New Year’s Eve 2024 In Northampton

NORTHAMPTON TOWNSHIP, PA —New Year's Eve is filled with good cheer, great food, fancy dinners, live music, and clanging champagne glasses.

Several places in Bucks County and the Philadelphia region will celebrate 2025 in grand style with festivities like Elmo and the gang at Sesame Place and a Brazilian steakhouse feast in Horsham.

Here's a look at events happening in and around Northampton Township:

• Noon Year's Eve Countdown Party, Free Library of Northampton Township, 25 Upper Holland Road, Richboro. The library will celebrate with a dance party countdown on Tuesday, Dec. 31 from 11:30 am. to 12:15 p.m. All ages are welcome.
  
• Kidology Noon Year's Eve, 928 Jaymor Road Unit C-150, Southampton, on December 31 from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dress your best and join Kidology for an apple cider toast, snacks, noon years confetti blast, dancing, photos, and play in the gym.
• Judd's and Jackson's At Spring Mill, 80 Jacksonville Road, Ivyland. New Year's Eve Gala featuring dinner, music and champagne. Reservations required by calling 215-675-6000.
• The Steam Pub will hold a NYE Party in Southampton at its location at 606 2nd Street Pike. Festivities take place from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. Tickets cover an open bar, live DJ, appetizer buffet and a champagne toast at midnight. Click here for more information.
• Na Brasa Brazilian Steakhouse on Easton Road in Horsham will offer 15 cuts of meat, fresh fish, grilled pineapple, endless sides, desserts, and soft drinks for $74.95 per person. After dinner, keep the celebration going next door at Iron Abbey with a DJ and Open Bar. Reservations are recommended. Festivities begin at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
• Sesame Place is holding a New Year's Eve celebration with Elmo and Friends at its Middletown Township amusement park. Festivities begin at 6 p.m. where children and adults alike can celebrate the new year with music and fireworks. You can also dine with Elmo at New Year's Eve Sweet Treats, sharing desserts and beverages. And you can meet the Count. Click here for more information.
• Ring the New Year in with style at Parx Casino in Bensalem Township starting at 9 p.m. Don't miss out on the area's best New Year's Eve Party. Tickets cost $125 per guest and includes a premium buffet with assorted Chickie's and Pete's favorites, a raw bar, seafood, pasta, and sandwich stations, assorted Italian appetizers, mini desserts, a super premium bar package, and a complimentary champagne toast. Click here for more information.

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s Times Square. Other U.S. cities have their own versions of this celebration, such as the Peeps Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho.

Pennsylvania’s twist on the ball drop are numerous: The Dillsburg Pickle Drop in the town of Dillsburg, the Lebanon Bologna Drop in the city of Lebanon, the raising of a giant Hershey KISS in Hershey, and the lowering of a White Rose in York and a Red Rose in Lancaster.

The transition from one year to the next is often marked by the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish folk song whose title roughly translates to “days gone by,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica and History.com.

The tradition of New Year’s resolutions dates back 8,000 years to ancient Babylonians, who made promises to return borrowed items and repay debts at the beginning of the new year, which was in mid-March when they planted their crops.

• Related: What New Year’s Resolution Did You Keep? How Did You Do It? [Patch Survey]

According to legend, if people kept their word, the pagan gods would grant them favor in the coming year. However, if they broke their promises, they would lose favor with the gods.

Many secular New Year’s resolutions focus on imagining new, improved versions of ourselves.

The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report. There are many reasons, but a big one is they’re made out of remorse — for gaining weight, for example — and aren’t accompanied by a shift in attitude or a plan for coping with the stress and discomfort that comes with changing a habit or condition.