It is that time of year again that is feared most by cats and dogs: New Year’s Eve (or “Oudejaarsdag” in Dutch). The time of year when the Netherlands goes crazy and vaporizes about 118 Million Euros in the name of fun and tradition. It is by far the best way to see your money go up in smoke!
How to vaporize money, a crash course.
As a frugal family, we should obviously not spend any money on this non-sense. Don’t get me wrong, I (Mr. CF) still have a soft spot for fireworks (something to do with childhood memories). And as a family we have often gone to firework shows, competitions, and love watching it in general. Heck, Mr. CF even has been to NYC to watch the 4th of July firework show near the Brooklyn bridge, and it was awesome!
The downside of vaporizing money… other than the money
But as I get older, the fun starts to wear off and the other aspects of it start to become clear. For example, our last dog was terrified of it. It quite literally didn’t go out for almost 24 hours and stayed under the table shaking. It was heartbreaking to see. Unfortunately for us she passed away back in October. But fortunately for her, not another year of hell to go through.
Beside the obvious noise & air pollution, terrified war refugees plus all the damage done to public property like street furniture, trans cans, etc. (which we all indirectly pay for) it makes you wonder why on earth we keep doing this. Now, I realize that it’s primarily the illegal stuff that’s causing most nuisance, not the stuff that one can legally buy and light up on the 31st of December and 1st of January. Albeit the second is still not pretty either. Doing new years eve with drones, lightshows and/or the occasional professional firework stuff would be great too. But I don’t see that happening any time soon, albeit there is definitely a trend away from fireworks. As with all traditions, it takes time to change them.
Still a bit of smoke…
So, this year we opted for just a tiny bit of firework fun with some Category 1 stuff for mini-me. She loves it and I kind of want to give her a taste of the fun I had when I was a kid. But, I refuse to spend any more money on this than is absolutely “necessary”.
Anyhow, let me finish off with wishing you all a happy new year and all the best for 2025!
Did/do you vaporize a lot of money with new years eve?