New Year’s Traditions in France

The French celebrate New Year's Eve, le Réveillon du Nouvel An, with a long, elegant feast among friends, a president's televised address at 8 pm, and a midnight countdown under fireworks, most famously along the Champs-Élysées in Paris. Celebrations don't stop there either. They carry on through Épiphanie on January 6th.

I've spent New Year's in France more than once now, and every time I'm struck by how different the whole season feels from an American New Year. It's quieter in some ways; Christmas is for family and New Year's is for friends, and far more indulgent in others, between the champagne, the oysters, and the sheer number of kisses you're expected to hand out before midnight.

This post is updated for the 2026 to 2027 holiday season with everything I've learned along the way, including how much to tip your mail carrier and where in France you can jump into the sea in January to start the year off with a shock.

La Saint-Sylvestre

In France, New Year's Eve is called Le Réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre, which translates loosely to the awakening of the patron saint of the New Year. December 31st lines up with the Western feast day of Saint Sylvester I, who served as pope from 314 to 335.

January 1st hasn't always been the start of the French year, either. Before the 16th century, the new year in France began around March 25th. King Charles IX changed that, formally fixing January 1st as the start of the year with the Roussillon Edict of 1564, building on a calendar system that traced back to Julius Caesar centuries earlier. So when the French raise a glass on December 31st, they're following a date that's been official for well over 450 years.

So let's have a happy New Year French style!

Le Réveillon du Nouvel An

Like Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve in France centers on a feast. Le Réveillon du Nouvel An kicks off with some caviar and champagne, and the meal itself features seafood (caviar, oysters, foie gras, smoked salmon), turkey, goose, and even game meats. It isn't a quick dinner. Expect course after course, often lasting until two or three in the morning, with plenty of wine to match each one.

Parties

While Christmas in France is a family affair, New Year's Eve celebrations are reserved for friends. You'll find everything from intimate dinners at home to une soirée dansante, an evening of dancing, to costume parties known as des soirées déguisées.

Whatever the party, the French take getting dressed for it seriously. There's even an expression for it, se mettre sur son 31, literally to put yourself in your 31, meaning to dress to the nines. Nobody is entirely sure where the number comes from, though one common theory ties it to trentain, a fine medieval fabric once reserved for special occasions. Mr. Misadventures has taken this one to heart. He insists on a full suit every single year, no exceptions, even the year we celebrated in a friend's tiny apartment kitchen.

The Presidential Message

A tradition started by Général Charles de Gaulle in 1960 during the height of the Cold War, the presidential message is an integral part of France’s New Year’s Eve traditions. Every year, at 8 pm, the French president addresses the nation on television with presidential greetings.

Broadcast from the Élysée Palace, Les vœux présidentiels (the President’s vows) highlight the events of the past year, and the President shares his political vision for France’s future. 

Midnight Celebrations and Fireworks

There is no formal countdown to mark the end of the year on television, but if you're spending New Year's Eve in Paris, you'll want to be on the Champs-Élysées. Beginning 30 minutes before midnight, an elaborate light and sound show builds toward the countdown, and mere seconds before midnight, the whole avenue seems to hold its breath.

For more on what the city looks and feels like this time of year, see my guide to Paris in December.

The New Year's Swim

If a countdown and champagne aren't quite enough, there's a tradition that will genuinely wake you up: le bain de la Saint-Sylvestre, or le bain du Nouvel An, the New Year's swim. Along the Côte d'Azur, towns including Villeneuve-Loubet, Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer, and Beaulieu-sur-Mer host organized plunges into the Mediterranean around the holidays, usually in the late morning, with mulled wine, hot chocolate, and live music waiting on the beach for anyone brave enough to climb back out.

Expect a genuine event around it too, with parades, dance performances, and swimming races alongside the plunge itself, not just a quick dip and a shiver. It's a lighthearted, very French way of saying the sea doesn't close for winter, even if the water absolutely does not feel like summer.

French Customs at New Year's

When and How to Say Happy New Year in French

You would think it would be straightforward to say Happy New Year in France.

Mais non.

The French language and, heck, French people in general, are a bit complicated. I am looking at you, Mr. Misadventures…

In France, it is bad luck to wish ‘Happy New Year’ before the 1st of January. As such, the French send out greetings that include words like ‘Bonnes fêtes de fin d’année’, meaning happy end-of-the-year celebrations.

After midnight, when the new year begins, one can hear shouts of ‘Bonne Année’ (Happy New Year in French) or ‘Meilleurs Vœux’ (best wishes).

Kissing Under the Mistletoe

Kissing under the mistletoe, s'embrasser sous le gui, is an important and popular French tradition reserved for New Year's Eve. You're expected to faire la bise with everyone in the room, literally everyone, and depending on the region, that can mean anywhere between two and four air kisses per person. Pace yourself at a big party.

Étrennes

Étrennes are small gifts given on the first day of the new year, a tradition that dates back to Roman times, when people exchanged things like honey, sweets, or figs. In modern France, Jour des Étrennes has become less about wrapped presents and more about a small envelope of cash for the people who've helped you all year, your postal worker, garbage collector, or building concierge among them.

If you're wondering how much is appropriate, here's roughly what French households give:

• Postal worker: around €10, with a minimum of about €5 per household
• Garbage collectors and firefighters: around €5 to €10
• Building concierge: roughly 5 to 10 percent of a month's rent, often landing somewhere between €30 and €70
• A regular house cleaner: €30 to €50, or about half a month's usual payment
• A regular babysitter: around €50 in cash

These figures are customary rather than mandatory, and plenty of households add a small homemade gift; a jar of jam is a classic, alongside the envelope.

How Other Countries Ring in the New Year

France isn't the only country with its own New Year's quirks, and if you're the kind of traveler who collects these little cultural details the way I do, they're worth knowing. Just across the border, Spanish tradition calls for eating twelve grapes at midnight, one on each stroke of the clock, for good luck in the year ahead. In Italy, red underwear is the move, worn on New Year's Eve for luck and love.

And along plenty of other European coastlines, not just the Côte d'Azur, hardy swimmers are taking their own icy plunges to start the year off with a shock to the system. It's a good reminder that, however you spend New Year's Eve, someone somewhere in Europe is doing something stranger.

New Year's Resolutions and Celebrations

Resolutions tend to be shared quietly in France, more often over dinner with close friends than posted anywhere public. It's a moment for reflection as much as celebration, a chance to say out loud what you're hoping the new year brings.

Le Jour de l’An

Rather than Christmas cards, French families tend to send New Year's greeting cards, les cartes de vœux du Nouvel An. These are often handwritten with a personalized message, though plenty of people now send a digital version instead.

Celebrations through January 6

But wait, just because it’s the 1st of January doesn’t mean it’s the end of celebrations! In France, the festivities and the holiday spirit extend well into the first week of January until the 6th. Celebrating the religious day when the three Magi presented baby Jesus with gifts, the day of Épiphane (Epiphany) and La Fête des Rois marks the end of the holiday period.

Across France, families, schools, and offices dig into the cake of the kings, popularly known as the Galette des Rois- a puffed, flaky pastry filled with frangipane (or chocolate or apples) and hiding a small figurine within it. The tradition says whoever finds the figurine (also called a fève) is king or queen for the day and is awarded a crown.

If you want to keep the celebrations going even after the galette, my post on La Chandeleur covers the crepe holiday that follows about a month later.

Frequently Asked Questions

New Year's in France has a rhythm all its own, equal parts elegant and a little bit wild depending on which party you end up at. Whether you're toasting with champagne on the Champs-Élysées, jumping into the Mediterranean in January, or just tucking an envelope of étrennes into your mailbox, I hope this gives you a real feel for how the season is celebrated here.

Bonne Année, and if you've celebrated New Year's in France yourself, I'd love to hear about it in the comments.

How about you? Have you celebrated New Year's in Paris or elsewhere in France? Are there any French New Year's traditions that you would like to make your own? Do share!

Like it? PIN it!