French New Year Traditions

Wondering how the French celebrate New Year’s Eve? Looking to make some French new year traditions your own? We love the French for so many reasons, including these fun French new year traditions!

1. Le Réveillon (or traditional New Year’s Eve dinner celebration).

It all starts with the fantastic “Réveillon” dinner party. As you know if you’ve been reading our blog for a while, the French take their food very seriously and if you are celebrating New Year’s Eve in France, you are sure to eat very well.

A typical French New Year’s Eve Menu may look something like this :

Oysters & Champagne
Duck foie gras with truffles
Boeuf Bourguignon
Fromages : brie de Meaux, Camembert, Saint Marcelin, Neufchatel & Rocamadour
Biscuits Roses de Reims Cheesecake

2. Enjoy a special New Year’s Eve celebration.

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The French love a special night out to ring in the new year. If you wondering where to spend New Year’s Eve in Paris, these are some of our favorite celebratory ideas :

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A post shared by Alix & Hugo ✈ Travel Couple (@ahedgehogtravels) on Apr 21, 2018 at 10:24am PDT

3. Send New Year’s cards.

I absolutely love sending Christmas and New Year’s cards, which makes this tradition one of my favorites. If you’d like to share this tradition with your friends and family, why not send your own authentic vintage French New Year’s cards?

4. Kiss under the mistletoe.

This tradition is reserved for New Year’s Eve here in France! This is one of the most romantic French New Year traditions.

5. Spend the day doing something special with those you love.

If you are looking for fun and memorable New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day activities, here are some ideas :

Book a tour of the gorgeous Garnier Opera house.
Book a visit to the Orangerie and start the year off right by visiting Monet’s breathtaking water lilies.
Book a macaron making class at Galeries Lafayette.

6. Look back on the previous year and create a new tradition.

The French love traditions. I love the sense of tradition here! Some of our family traditions including thanking the past year for everything it gave us, setting aside a day to buy a new agenda and then going for hot chocolate at Angelina’s or an afternoon tea at Le Meurice.

7. Watch the fireworks.

There are fireworks all over France to ring in the new year. The most famous (and crowded) are the fireworks over the Arc de Triomphe on the Champs-Elysées.

8. Kiss at midnight.

Smooch the one you love at midnight or do as the French do and give les bises to those around you as the clock strikes 12.

9. Make New Year’s Resolutions.

Like most Western countries, the French make New Year’s resolutions. French New Year’s resolutions can include wanting to lose weight, quit smoking or exercise more or add a new activity, travel more or learn a new language. One list of common French New Year’s resolutions I took a peek at, suggested that people often include home improvements on their list of New Year’s resolutions, such as “paint the downstairs shutters” or “fix the leaky bathroom sink”, as well.

10. Say “thank you!” with les étrennes.

This tradition started with the Romans and continues today in France. In order the thank you those who make our lives run smoothly all year long, the French give a cash gift to service workers. These cash gifts go out to janitors, firemen, postal workers, garbage collectors and cleaners. If you live in France, you may even receive a home visit by a group of fireman who come around in late December and early January asking for monetary gifts in exchange for calendars. Sometimes parents and grandparents give étrennes to children on New Year’s Eve as well.

11. Eat – or gift – a New Year’s waffle.

This French new year tradition is a tasty one! In the North of France, people give crunchy waffles, known as les gaufrettes, les gaufrettes sèches (literally dry waffles) or les étrennes. You can buy these tasty treats at Meert in Paris. They have several locations but our favorite is the beautiful boutique located at 16 rue Elzevir, in the Marais.

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A post shared by Alix & Hugo ✈ Travel Couple (@ahedgehogtravels) on Nov 7, 2017 at 3:03am PST

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A post shared by Meert Marais (@meert_marais) on Aug 2, 2018 at 8:46am PDT

12. La Galette des Rois.

An Epiphany tradition, a complete New Year celebration in France includes enjoying a delicious Galette des Rois on the 6th of January. This traditional galette is made with a puff pastry base and a layer of marzipan. Our version (pictured below) is a caramelized apple Galette des Rois. French families bake a ceramic fève into the galette. Whoever gets the piece with the fève inside, becomes the king or queen for the day!