New Year's Eve Party Glasses for 2011 (Guest)

Did you think these glasses were really going to disappear any time soon? Sara is here to tell you all about how they're not going anywhere!


A longtime favorite New Year's tradition is wearing a pair of glasses in the shape of the New Year being celebrated. The glasses originated in the early 1990s, when they were sold in Times Square. They quickly grew popular during the 1990s, and were a common sight during the 2000s. Of course, making New Year's Eve party glasses was a lot easier for these initial decades, when the lenses could simply be inserted in the two nines or zeroes of the New Year. 2010 was a little more challenging, but a quick solution was found. All that designers needed to do was shift the glasses to the right a smidgen and use the number one as a nosepiece. Now that 2011 is around the corner, making New Year's party glasses is a lot trickier. Manufacturers initially struggled with the task of making a fashionable pair of glasses from the number 2011, but it looks like they have pulled it off.

Glasses Designs

Designers took a variety of routes when creating glasses for 2011. Many chose to insert one lens in the only zero of 2011, and the second lens in the first one. This design works out okay, as long as the numbers are wide and rectangular shaped. Another common design consists of one lens in the zero and the other in between the zero and the first one. This style is more accommodating for rounded numbers than the boxier version with the lens in the one.

Increase in Demand

In spite of the slightly awkward new shape of the New Year's Eve party glasses, the demand for these accessories is higher than ever. Like confetti and Auld Lang Sign, donning New Year's party glasses has become an important tradition for partygoers. The astronomical sale of these glasses in past years is one of the reasons that manufacturers were so devoted to coming up with a working design for 2011. And the glasses aren’t just used for New Year's Eve anymore. Turns out, these glasses are also very popular with high school and college graduates who wear them to their graduation parties.

It is a good thing that the manufacturers were so determined to come out with a new design because there were many who thought the odds were against them. Many people began mourning the end of New Year's Eve party glasses already in 2009. And they did so again in 2010. But as we now know, as long as the glasses remain popular, designers will find a way to make them work each year.

Sara Roberts is a content contributor for Just Eyewear, a prescription eyeglasses and prescription sunglasses retailer.