Abigail Tufts can’t wait for New Year’s Eve.
In years past, Ms. Tufts, 36, who lives in New York City and runs her own public relations company, did “the glitter and makeup and ball gown,” she said.
But this year, a trying one both professionally and personally, she’s skipping celebrations altogether to watch the Season 5 finale of “Stranger Things” at a movie theater alone.
No reflections on the past year or resolutions for her. “I cannot wait to turn off my phone,” she said.
There has always been a camp of people who relish in skipping the revelry associated with New Year’s Eve — a night Michael Fragoso, a 35-year-old New Yorker and skipper, called “amateur hour” — opting instead to stay home or do something low-key or entirely unrelated.
And this year — a year in which Paris and Tokyo are among the cities to cancel public celebrations because of security and other concerns — that camp will see new converts.
Alexandria Drake, 24, a lifestyle and travel publicist who lives in New York, said this will be the first time in her adult life she will stay home for New Year’s Eve. Last year she went out in East Hampton, N.Y., with a group of girlfriends, an experience she found stressful. “Just thinking through what am I going to wear, where am I going to go, who am I going to kiss,” she said.
This year, “I am going to do it solo,” she said, with a bottle of wine and a vision board.
She said she feels this change is part of a larger lifestyle shift happening within her generation. “We’ve turned away from going out until the bar closes,” she said, “and instead just having two drinks at dinner with a friend and being home by 10 p.m.”
“I think this shift has impacted everything, so why not New Year’s Eve?” she said.
Robin Levine Shobin, 47, a brewery owner and writer who splits her time between New York City and the Gold Coast of Australia, isn’t even making her usual list of resolutions. “Usually I do the typical reset of what my goals are.”
This year, she has a different feeling: “Eh.” She expanded: “I just feel a little beat down in terms of news,” adding that “the year never goes as planned, not remotely.”
So her only plan for 2026 is “to be laissez-faire,” starting with its eve, for which she plans to stay home in New York with her partner, a good bottle of wine and a pizza.
Philip Scheinfeld, 35, who works in real estate and splits his time between Miami and New York City, used to have big blowout celebrations. Not anymore.
“I have a lot of friends who are sober now,” he said, adding that they are more into health and wellness. “I work out every morning. I do the sauna, ice bath. I try to eat super healthy. I have a great therapist.”
All of which means the new year doesn’t provide a chance “to improve myself anymore,” he said. “It’s just another day.”
Doug Melville, 47, a corporate strategist who lives in New York City, has spent his last five New Year’s Eve celebrations on trips to far-flung places like Sri Lanka; Málaga, Spain; Rome; Fiji; and Costa Rica.
But this year he has committed to staying home with his girlfriend. “I think the economy is making me a little bit more conservative,” he said. “I also think being around crowds as we age gracefully is less attractive.”
This is not news to the veteran skippers.
Take Casey Fremont, 42, who lives in Los Angeles. It’s not as though she doesn’t like to party. As executive director of the Art Production Fund, she throws one of New York’s biggest galas, in addition to attending events all year.
But since she was in her mid-20s, Ms. Fremont has skipped the New Year’s party circuit. “It has so much hype around it,” she said. In past years, she scrolled through her phone as the clock struck midnight, asking herself if she felt left out from what her friends were posting on social media.
The answer was a resounding no. “I have total FOMO most of the time, but when I see this,” she said, “I am so happy to be at home cozy in bed.”
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