The bubbly, the ball, the midnight kiss. Not all single ladies want a ring on it, but do they want a date for New Year's Eve?
Yes, it's almost here, that milestone of love and romance. This year, the holiday has its own movie (of the same name) filled with intertwining couples and a cast dripping with Zac Efron, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jon Bon Jovi and Halle Berry.
There's love lost and found, confusing new love, love in an elevator and sweet father-daughter love. Director Garry Marshall packs it all in, but in the real world, New Year's Eve is one of those nights when the date monster rears. For others, though, Plan B (not worrying about a date) has become the new Plan A.
"A lot of us are waking up to the fact that those are silly traditions meant to make us feel desperate about having a partner," said Jayelle Hughes, 32, single and happy in suburban New York. "Just because you're single on New Year's doesn't mean something's wrong with you."
Avoiding that feel-bad trap requires strategy, she said.
Hughes, for one, will seek out other single friends and certain "non-annoying" couple friends on New Year's Eve. "An annoying couple is one that is either ignoring their friends, or they're fighting all night long," she said.
Now that online dating has gone mobile through a variety of phone apps, dating has never been easier and seems readymade for New Year's Eve. Alex Weissner, 26, in Denver isn't interested. "I've never been on a date on New Year's Eve and I'm sure most of my close friends haven't either," she said. She, too, will celebrate with a group of friends.
And that kiss? "I feel like so many young women out there need to have that date," Weissner said, "but honestly why not just enjoy your life and you never know what might happen?"
Shannon Mouton, 43, in Washington, has been in several long-term relationships that involved being together for New Year's Eve. This year, she'll be with friends, with a likely stop at church.
"I did spend one New Year's Eve with just a single girlfriend. It was depressing," she said.
It's tough for Jennifer Marcus, 25, in Fort Wayne, New Jersey, to be around coupled friends on New Year's Eve, especially since she just broke up with her boyfriend of three years.
"I'll be sad watching people around me with their partners. But I can still spend the holiday with close family and friends, ringing in the New Year with people who matter the most."
The New Year's Eve dread, for those similarly prone, sets in right about now, said 29-year-old Doree Lewak, who wrote The Panic Years: A Guide to Surviving Smug Married Friends, Bad Taffeta and Life on the Wrong Side of 25 Without a Ring.
"Women still feel huge pressure around the holidays — and certainly exacerbated by New Year's — to have a date," said Lewak. She interviewed 300 twentysomething and thirtysomething women for her look at single life. "An overwhelming number felt angst and despair during the holidays," she said.
New Year's Eve and the midnight kiss, Lewak said, are "so tied up with having a significant other. It's just so built into our DNA."
Christine Clifford in Minneapolis owns a resource site for divorcees, Divorcingdivas.net, and hears the same sentiment on a regular basis. She offers these tips to stay happy. They could work for any single, whether divorced, widowed or never married.
Plan ahead with several of your closest friends, she said. "If money isn't an issue, plan a trip to a spa or resort. Go horseback riding, golfing or hiking. Go to a place that you've always dreamt of visiting."
