The History of New Years Resolutions

The tradition of the New Year's Resolutions goes all the way back to 153 B.C. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar.

With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future. Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions and many Romans looked for forgiveness from their enemies and also exchanged gifts before the beginning of each year.

The New Year has not always begun on January 1, and it doesn't begin on that date everywhere today. It begins on that date only for cultures that use a 365-day solar calendar. January 1 became the beginning of the New Year in 46 B.C., when Julius Caesar developed a calendar that would more accurately reflect the seasons than previous calendars had.

The Romans named the first month of the year after Janus, the god of beginnings and the guardian of doors and entrances. He was always depicted with two faces, one on the front of his head and one on the back. Thus he could look backward and forward at the same time. At midnight on December 31, the Romans imagined Janus looking back at the old year and forward to the new.

The Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve by giving one another branches from sacred trees for good fortune. Later, nuts or coins imprinted with the god Janus became more common New Year's gifts.

In the Middle Ages, Christians changed New Year's Day to December 25, the birth of Jesus. Then they changed it to March 25, a holiday called the Annunciation. In the sixteenth century, Pope Gregory XIII revised the Julian calendar, and the celebration of the New Year was returned to January 1.

The Julian and Gregorian calendars are solar calendars. Some cultures have lunar calendars, however. A year in a lunar calendar is less than 365 days because the months are based on the phases of the moon. The Chinese use a lunar calendar. Their new year begins at the time of the first full moon (over the Far East) after the sun enters Aquarius- sometime between January 19 and February 21.

Although the date for New Year's Day is not the same in every culture, it is always a time for celebration and for customs to ensure good luck in the coming year.

Ancient New Years

The celebration of the New Year is the oldest of all holidays. It was first observed in ancient Babylon about 4000 years ago. In the years around 2000 BC, Babylonians celebrated the beginning of a new year on what is now March 23, although they themselves had no written calendar.

Late March actually is a logical choice for the beginning of a new year. It is the time of year that spring begins and new crops are planted. January 1, on the other hand, has no astronomical nor agricultural significance. It is purely arbitrary.

The Babylonian New Year celebration lasted for eleven days. Each day had its own particular mode of celebration, but it is safe to say that modern New Year's Eve festivities pale in comparison.

The Romans continued to observe the New Year on March 25, but their calendar was continually tampered with by various emperors so that the calendar soon became out of synchronization with the sun.

In order to set the calendar right, the Roman senate, in 153 BC, declared January 1 to be the beginning of the New Year. But tampering continued until Julius Caesar, in 46 BC, established what has come to be known as the Julian Calendar. It again established January 1 as the New Year. But in order to synchronize the calendar with the sun, Caesar had to let the previous year drag on for 445 days.

Global Good Luck Traditions

With New Year's upon us, here's a look at some of the good luck rituals from around the world. They are believed to bring good fortune and prosperity in the coming year.

AUSTRIA - The suckling pig is the symbol for good luck for the new year. It's served on a table decorated with tiny edible pigs. Dessert often consists of green peppermint ice cream in the shape of a four-leaf clover.

ENGLAND - The British place their fortunes for the coming year in the hands of their first guest. They believe the first visitor of each year should be male and bearing gifts. Traditional gifts are coal for the fire, a loaf for the table and a drink for the master. For good luck, the guest should enter through the front door and leave through the back. Guests who are empty-handed or unwanted are not allowed to enter first.

WALES - At the first toll of midnight, the back door is opened and then shut to release the old year and lock out all of its bad luck. Then at the twelfth stroke of the clock, the front door is opened and the New Year is welcomed with all of its luck.

HAITI - In Haiti, New Year's Day is a sign of the year to come. Haitians wear new clothing and exchange gifts in the hope that it will bode well for the new year.

SICILY - An old Sicilian tradition says good luck will come to those who eat lasagna on New Year's Day, but woe if you dine on macaroni, for any other noodle will bring bad luck.

SPAIN - In Spain, when the clock strikes midnight, the Spanish eat 12 grapes, one with every toll, to bring good luck for the 12 months ahead.

PERU - The Peruvian New Year's custom is a spin on the Spanish tradition of eating 12 grapes at the turn of the year. But in Peru, a 13th grape must be eaten to assure good luck.

GREECE - A special New Year's bread is baked with a coin buried in the dough. The first slice is for the Christ child, the second for the father of the household and the third slice is for the house. If the third slice holds the coin, spring will come early that year.

JAPAN - The Japanese decorate their homes in tribute to lucky gods. One tradition, kadomatsu, consists of a pine branch symbolizing longevity, a bamboo stalk symbolizing prosperity, and a plum blossom showing nobility.

CHINA - For the Chinese New Year, every front door is adorned with a fresh coat of red paint, red being a symbol of good luck and happiness. Although the whole family prepares a feast for the New Year, all knives are put away for 24 hours to keep anyone from cutting themselves, which is thought to cut the family's good luck for the next year.

UNITED STATES - The kiss shared at the stroke of midnight in the United States is derived from masked balls that have been common throughout history. As tradition has it, the masks symbolize evil spirits from the old year and the kiss is the purification into the new year.

NORWAY - Norwegians make rice pudding at New Year's and hide one whole almond within. Guaranteed wealth goes to the person whose serving holds the lucky almond.

Chinese New Year

Except for a very few number of people who can keep track of when the Chinese New Year should be, the majority of the Chinese today have to rely on a typical Chinese calendar to tell it. Therefore, you cannot talk of the Chinese New Year without mentioning the Chinese calendar at first.

A Chinese calendar consists of both the Gregorian and lunar-solar systems, with the latter dividing a year into twelve month, each of which is in turn equally divided into thirty- nine and a half days. The well-coordinated dual system calendar reflects the Chinese ingenuity.

There is also a system that marks the years in a twelve-year cycle, naming each of them after an animal such as Rat, Ox, Tiger, Hare, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Sheep, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Boar. People born in a particular year are believed to share some of the personalities of that particular animal.

The Real Meaning of Celebrating Christmas and New Years

Love makes a difference in handling Christmas excitement, expectations and depression.

One time when I was home from boarding school to New York City where my parents lived at age eight I got terribly excited when looking up at our tall Christmas tree that reached the ceiling that my father had to cut the top off, much to my child's regret.

What a great tree that was, all green and its spruce aroma filled the air of our apartment. Outside was snow spiraling the air with white fluffs smacking us in our crispy cool faces. If my father did not watch me I would be eating the fresh snow off the curb or making snowballs for you know what.

I would get so excited and happy at the advent of Christmas because here love was. My mother told me that people were always nicer to each other at Christmas. Yes, I did not know why yet, but there was magic in the air!

However, when we got the big tree up the stairs, my father and I, and into the apartment, cut off top and all, I looked up at it and fell into a faint and hit my forehead above my left eye against the radiator as I fell.

The plain truth which I realized later is that the promise of Christmas is the promise of love, of caring, of new life itself.

Have you ever felt disappointed at the Christmas presents you got? I certainly have. It seems like those who love us never can really get us the present we really long for. Is that not because we long for love in our life?

Why is it that families tend to go home to the parents at Christmas, or one of the siblings' houses?

It's called the family archetype. We return to the nest where our existence started. In nature at the darkest time of the year, the Winter Solstice, the new light is born. After the longest night and shortest day the days start getting longer and we know that after winter spring and summer will come. Inside us it's the birth of hope again, of another year of life, yet with new wonderful things possible.

It's the death-rebirth cycle. Not only nature goes into hibernation, and living things are still but not dead. It's also hibernation in the inner womb. It's the season of the inner light, and so the outer light of many candles lit in the afternoon and evening brings joy to our hearts.

Where I lived for awhile in Sweden and Norway both, they have the custom of lighting big candles that cannot be blown out by the wind and placing them outside shops and restaurants on the sidewalks. This represents the winter light when all is darkness.

Darkness represents depression, the withdrawal of light, of life force, of energy and enthusiasm for new projects. In England it seems like the whole month of December nobody works that hard in their companies. What are they doing? The good restaurants are full all afternoon and evening because companies take all their employees to company Christmas feasts. They stay for hours, believe me. And they are mostly in no condition to work after such a feast.

Ancient societies always had winter light festivals, whether snow visited them or not because of the climate.

Christmas, the birth of the Savior, was put by the Church fathers at near the time of the traditional winter solstice. Whether they knew it or not, they were intuiting the need for humans to go through their own inner death-rebirth cycles.

And we go through ours as well, whether we know it or not that consciously.

Here are a few suggestions that will guide you through the winter holidays. Don't worry about whether you are religious or not. Seek the spiritual significance of Christmas-Winter Solstice in your own inner being.

If you get caught up in a Christmas gift buying frenzy just remember that each of these material gifts symbolizes the One Great Gift really, which is the gift of life itself. Life comes through love.

If you don't have that much love in your life at the moment, don't get totally depressed by it, or if you are depressed, don't hide from it with alcohol or anything else you want to take to relieve your depression.

Don't let materialism take you over. In other words, don't give yourself totally away to others in gifts or time spent with so many people. Choose. Pick your close friends and family. Pick what you want to do during the holidays as well as go with some of what you feel obligated to do.

Relax into the festivities. Take time to be with fellow workers and friends. Remember that the spirit of this time is bringing light out of darkness. Take some time to write an old friend with something serious about yourself and how life is going for both of you.

After being with a lot of people celebrating, also suggest to some of those closest to you that you all go somewhere in nature for a walk.

Remember that your life is one year older, as is everyone's. You let go of the old year to make space for the new by acknowledging the old life, or the highlights of the year, and then you let them go.

In giving feast toasts you might ask each person to toast one highlight of your being or working together throughout the past year. Thus you are acknowledging the light, symbolically the high value times of the year.

If you just go along with things, or act happy when you don't feel so happy, or get totally stressed out with shopping and planning dinners and parties, then you will lose a lot of energy and feel depressed by the time Christmas arrives or right after.

Don't forget that New Years is soon to follow!

Seems like most of us want to be with other people during the transition into the new year. What is the tradition of kissing at twelve o'clock midnight but the symbolic hope of true love in the new year?

If you're not with somebody special, don't get depressed about it. If year after year you are not with someone, then make sure you go to a New Years special workshop or something.

Give up something old in transition into the new year. Yet also focus on something new for the new year.

Once I asked a group of twenty people who wanted me to lead their New Years celebration at the sea in Big Sur, California, on an estate, 'what is the worst New Years you ever had?' People told amazing stories. One theme dominated them all. It seems that when New Years approaches expectations are aroused. You are supposed to be supremely happy and optimistic. But what if you just don't feel that way?

Understandable, say we psychologists. Expectations are never as good as reality.

The best attitude to approach the Christmas and New Years time is to open to all the feelings without expectation of what should happen.

Strangely, Christmas fights are common in families that get together every Christmas. You don't have to fight but families do. Like my mother said, people are kinder to each other at Christmas. Was that a wish or a reality? She and her sister sometimes had horrible fights.

The problem is that most of us don't get or give enough love and appreciation during the year, so then at the time of love and new birth we feel secretly depressed over not having enough love in our lives. We fight each other and become sick and depressed, rather than choose to love as best we can everywhere we can.

Watch out then because Christmas symbolizes the birth of new life out of love, and New Years symbolizes the sacrifice of the old life for the new. Sacrifice your negativity and hurt and choose again to love.

Love is choosing to love fully despite disappointments and past hurts. You must love yourself first before you can love others. You must love others first before they can love you.

The only true gift at Christmas is love.

Love is accepting the unacceptable because you want new life for yourself and others.

Love is the sacrifice of old hurts and traumas so that you can love and share again.

Love is caring about what is important in life. Love is caring about who is important in your life.

Love is feeding the rat behind the door as well as the beautiful kitten in front of the door.

Love is not perfect but the choice to love is fulness itself.

Love does not end hate but it does offer a chance for change.

Love is exchanging old life for new. Lovers may be old but their love can always be new.

Yet don't expect perfection in love, or love's ideal. A rose may be almost perfect but you don't have to be.

You wont find your ideal gift or person probably out there. You have to allow times of quiet this holiday season to feel your inner person and to do things that are meaningful to you. Love yourself first and you will love others. Try to get love from others and you will be hurting yourself and them.

Don't try to buy love with Christmas presents. Relax. Slow down. The right gift at the right moment will come to you if you let it. Go for simple. If you have to work too hard at it why do it?

Don't just send Christmas Cards, if you still do. Send a few heartfelt sharing letters to a few people who have really counted for you in your life.

Don't just have parties or go to parties, or to family gatherings. Make sure you put in special times, like lunches together, for special friends whom you don't see that often because of the work-a-day world the rest of the year.

What people need is your love, not your gifts. You need to allow the time and inner receptivity to love and to allow love to come your way.

It's also a time for reminiscence. With that special friend or family member, make time for the two of you to sit down together, or go for an hour's walk in nature, just to tune in.

How has it gone with you this year? you ask. And you share some yourself about what you feel most good about, and also what has been difficult for you.

Remember, the real gift is love. We were born through an act of love and closeness and thus we become alive. We have the gift of life for as long as we have it. Don't worry about death. The real problem is to fully live when you are alive.

Don't rush around at Christmas and New Years any more than you have to. Slow down the pace. Don't drink or eat heavily to avoid a secret pain, or because you think you have to be happy all the time during the holidays. You don't.

If you are your real self you will feel the sadness of what didn't happen for you this past year, and the joy from what positive things have become the shining lights on your Christmas tree of life and love.

New Year's Activities & Traditions - 10 Ideas For Families, Groups, & Couples

Let's just assume that we all will stay up late on New Year's Eve, have a blast at a party with family or friends, eat a lot of candy and food, kiss someone 'special' at midnight - and then wake up in the morning (after sleeping in) and watch a parade, catch a football game, and make some New Year's resolutions.

In addition to these common traditions and activities on New Year's - here is a list of some more fun ideas for families and people everywhere of what to do as you bring in the New Year:

1) Campout in the Family Room: Let the kids stay up late, and everyone sleep out in the family room together. Have a party - play games together as a family, get lots of candy, watch the ball drop, rent a movie, etc. - just have a fun night together.

2) Predictions & Guesses: Each person in the family writes down their predictions for the upcoming year: will their be a marriage, a new baby, what world events will happen, who will win an election, what team will win the Super Bowl, or any other significant world or family event. Write them down, collect them, store them, and then look at them the next year to see who was right.

3) Christmas 'Thank You' Notes: Get out some cards and everyone write thank yous to grandparents, family, and friends who gave gifts to you that year.

4) Turn the Clock Ahead: If you have young kids, turn the clock ahead so that they can still enjoy the fun of celebrating the New Year.

5) Gift Giving: Considering all the gifts that the kids received at Christmas time, have each child buy or make a gift for someone in need. Go to the local orphanage, homeless shelter, or to sick kids at the hospital - and give a gift to a child in need.

6) Winter Camping & Vacation: Go camping with friends or as a family ... yes, in the winter time. Or, just make it a tradition to have a family winter vacation.

7) The Resolution: We all write resolutions that are kept for a good 3-4 days (right!). This year, choose just one habit to break, or one resolution to stick with, or one relationship to improve, or one talent to develop, etc. - and commit to it and DO IT!

8) Put Away the Christmas Decorations: Make it a yearly tradition to take down and put away the Christmas decorations together as a family.

9) New Year's Meals: Every year, sleep in and have a large brunch and dinner as a family. But, ensure you have the same traditional meal every year.

10) Family Resolutions & Planning: In addition to writing personal resolutions, write and commit to some family goals. Perhaps it is spending more time together, each child helping around the house more, parents being more kind and loving, have more 'family nights' together, etc. Also, pull out the calendar and plan for significant events and family vacations in the upcoming year.

Santa Claus in Different Cultures

To understand the differences in cultures, have a look at the different Santa's that exist in the world. Santa is one of the great symbols in the United Stated for Christmas but not all countries have the same Santa. Since Christianity in days of old was trying to bring more people into the faith, the church and newly converted people adapted local customs to make the birth of Christ easier for people to understand.

Santa may seem like a small way to measure cultures, but once you understand that something so simple as Santa is different in different markets, you can begin to understand how you have to change your selling style to match your different markets.

A Brief History Of Santa Claus

Saint Nicholas is the common name for Nicholas of Myra, a Lycian saint and Bishop of Myra in Lycia of Anatolia. Because of the miracles attributed him, he is also known as Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker. He had a reputation for secret gift-giving, such as putting coins in the shoes of those who left them out for him, and is now commonly identified with Santa Claus.

Sinterklaas is a traditional holiday figure in the Netherlands and Belgium, celebrated every year on 5 December, Saint Nicholas' eve, or on the morning of December 6. Sinterklaas is the basis for the North American figure of Santa Claus.

Santa, the red-suited man with a beard and a big belly, first appeared in a Coca-Cola advertisement in 1931. Before that, Santa was more like an elf.

In 1885, Thomas Nast sketched two children looking at a map of the world and tracing Santa's journey from the North Pole to the United States. The following year, the American writer, George P. Webster, took up this idea, explaining that Santa's toy factory and "his house, during the long summer months, was hidden in the ice and snow of the North Pole."

Finland

Finnish people believe that Father Christmas lives in the north part of Finland called Korvatunturi, or Lapland, north of the Arctic Circle. People from all over the world send letters to Santa Claus in Finland.

England

Father Christmas was originally part of an old English midwinter festival, normally dressed in green, a sign of the returning spring. He was known as 'Sir Christmas', 'Old Father Christmas' or Old Winter'.

In this earliest form, Father Christmas was not the bringer of gifts for small children, nor did he come down the chimney. He simply wandered around from home to home, knocking on doors and feasting with families before moving on to the next house.

Children write letters to Father Christmas about the presents they want to receive. Instead of sending the letter, the kids burn the the letters because they believe that Father Christmas would be able to determine their wishes through the smoke.

Germany

Martin Luther introduced das Christkindl (an angel-like Christ Child) to bring Christmas gifts and reduce the importance of Sankt Nikolaus (Protestants don't have saints). Later this Christkindl figure would evolve into der Weihnachtsmann in Protestant regions and would eventually cross the Atlantic to mutate into the English term "Kris Kringle."

Iceland

The Yule Lads, or Yulemen, (Icelandic: jólasveinarnir or jólasveinar) are figures from Icelandic folklore who in modern times have become the Icelandic version of Santa Claus. Their number has varied throughout the ages, but currently there are considered to be thirteen.

Two examples of the 13 are:

Gluggagægir, the Window-Peeper. He is a voyeur who looks through windows in search of things to steal. He starts visiting on 21 December and leaves on 3 January.

Stúfur, Stubby. He is abnormally short and steals pans to eat the crust left on them. He starts visiting on 14 December and leaves on 27 December.

Scandinavia

In much of the Scandinavian countries the Christmas Eve gift giver is the Jultomten or Christmas Gnome. Originally a goblin who brought good or bad luck to farmers; he became popular as the gift giver in the 19th century.

Russia

Babushka is a traditional Russian Christmas figure who gives gifts to children. Her name means grandmother and the legend is told that she decided to not go with the wise men to see Jesus because of the cold weather. Later she regretted not going and set off to try and catch up, filling her basket with presents. She never found Jesus, and that is why she visits each house, leaving toys for good children.

In a recent article in Russia, about Santa, he was declared an 'illegal immigrant' according to a top Kremlin official in Christmas 'Cold War'.

On 1 January, D'yed Moroz bring gifts and he arrives at the Kremlin celebration aboard a Sputnik-drawn sleigh.

Turkey

In Turkey there is Noel Baba who is related with New Year's Eve instead of Christmas since Turks do not celebrate Christmas. In today's predominantly Muslim Turkey, commercial interests have promoted Noel Baba to encourage gift giving at New Year's. Noel Baba is sometimes seen in shopping areas, on the streets, or in schools similar to Santa in Christian countries.

Holland

A legend existed that St. Nicholas put the Devil in chains and made him his slave and each St. Nicholas Day the Devil was working under orders from Saint Nicholas. The good Saint would direct "Black Peter" to drop gifts and candy down the chimneys into the children's shoes which were always there on St. Nicholas Eve. Eventually, the practice was carried over to Christmas which was actually a few weeks later.

Portugal

In Portugal, Pai Natal delivers presents and it is the baby Jesus who helps Pai Natal with the presents.

Italy

La Befana (Old Witch) is flying on her broomstick to give candies to kids in Italy. This is done on the night before Epiphany.

Austria

Heiliger Nikolaus give rewards to good children in Austria on 6 December. While Christkindl brings gifts on 24 December.

Belgium

In Belgium Pere Noel visits the children twice. First is every 4 December so he'll find out who have been good and bad among the children. Then good children would receive toys and candies while the bad ones will find twigs on their stockings on 6 December.

Hungary

Tel-apo or Mikulas has similar practice as in Belgium, delivering gifts on 6 December.

Brazil

Papai Noel, who usually wears a silk clothe, will bring the gifts for Christmas.

Sweden

A gnome called "Juletomten" brings gifts in a sleigh driven by goats.

Now that you have seen the differences in how people view Santa in different cultures, you can begin to work on how you will sell to these different markets.

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Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural eMarketer & International Sales Specialist, aligning businesses with different cultures. She has over 25 years field experience in international business development and helps mid-sized business owners create international business development strategies that shorten time to profitability.

Virtual Santa Clause - What Are Kids Telling Santa Online?

You may stand in line at the mall to see the real Santa, but more and more kids spend sometimes up to one hour chatting with a Virtual Santa Claus online. There are now plenty of online chat-bots talking to literally hundreds of thousands of children during the Christmas season.
It's known that children feel comfortable talking to Santa, but that's also true for an automated Santa software on the Internet. So, who are these artificial Santa Clauses? Where do you find them? And, what are the children saying to them?

Who are these Santa Clauses?
Various types of Santa bots exist online - from purely text based to fully-animated talking avatars of Santa Claus.

The famous santabot.com is a text-based chatbot using an Instant Message (IM) interface like MSN messenger or ICQ that kids a comfortable with.
The Santa bot developed by the A.L.I.C.E. foundation has a talking Santa head with a deep robot voice, text-to-speech, so you can actually hear Santa talk back to you.
Santa lives also in virtual worlds, such as one flash animated Santa Clause that sits behind the counter of a 'milk and cookies bar' ready to take your order.

What do kids say to a Virtual Santa Clause?

Kids will say about anything to Santa, and a unique insight into how kids interact with the Santa Claus bots online can be found in the statistics and trends collected from them.

The average time spend chatting with Santa is 18 minutes
Some conversations have lasted over 60 minutes
The popular questions year after year: "Are you real", "Sing me a song", "Do you know any jokes", "Can you take off your beard?", "Where is Mrs Claus"
New questions asked this season, most probably due to the economic downturn - "a job for my daddy", "can you send us money"
One chat in ten includes some form of insult. But kids will also usually be quick to apologize and ask Santa not to get angry
Almost gone are the bicycles and roller blades. The toys children ask for this season are "iPod", "Wii", "Xbox 360", and "PSP"

New Year -Complete Details of New Year

New Year is fast approaching and all of us must be wondering on how we can make our forthcoming days all the more happier and blissful. Making new resolutions, planning for the New Year party, purchasing New Year gifts etc consume most of our days prior to the occasion. Despite the yellow leaves, chilly mornings and cool winds breezing through, every heart holds warmth of mirth and enthusiasm in it. Irrelevant of cast, creed, religion and region people celebrate New Year in the most grand manner. The bygone year is bidden farewell to and the new year is embraced with arms wide open.

New Year History

A secular festival like New Year has a very ancient historic past attached to it. One of the earliest New Year celebrations was recorded in Mesopotamia in around 2000 B.C. But, it is considered that the celebrations of that New Year took place in the month of Spring on the first New Moon night. Whereas, a similar kind of celebration took place in Egypt and Persia on the Equinox, which falls in the month of winter season. The trend continued for many subsequent years until in around 150 B.C Romans fixed 1st January as the date to commence the cycle of the Gregorian New Year. The great King Julius Caesar made this attempt, which is followed till date. Thus, it is one of the old pagan festivals in the world.

New Year Traditions & Celebrations

However, there are many different traditions of celebrating New Year in different countries, yet the fervor and the intensity remains almost same all over. While some countries like United States of America and France hold parades in order to eulogize the occasion. While Chinese and Spanish people like to have a family dinner and then going out for celebrations, natives of Brazil enjoy New Year jubilations at street with colorful props. Making loud noises, having festive food and singing and dancing on jolly tunes is certainly the highlight of the day in any country across the world.

New Year Day Gifts

New Year day gifts are an expression of wishing all luck and happiness in the upcoming year. There is no scarcity of New Year gifts in the market. Make this New Year all the more special with exquisite decorative items, floral gifts, motivational gifts, good luck charm gifts and even ready to give New Year gift baskets. To lend to your gift a special, personalized feel add a New Year Day card to it. Enticing range of greeting cards are available at a gift shop near you. You can also send free New Year greetings via internet as many websites offer such a facility.