Bet we all have different traditions for what you call 'New Years Eve'.
for starters: in Holland we call it 'Old years day / evening'
and we have all kind of special foods.
I'm making some of them right now.
their called 'Oliebol' in Dutch, so this would be oil-ball in English.
dough with raisins backed in sunflower oil.
later on I'm making the Dutch apple flap
slices of apple covered with dough backed in oil also. (looks a bit like a donut.)
for Old years day we also have
'knieperties' in English this would be pinches or so.
waffles backed in an oven, but in the old days they used a
waffle iron that you had to squeeze /pinch to make it a flat waffle.
flat because the last year is gone and will have no surprises anymore.
for New years day they make
rolled waffles and we fill them with sweet whipped cream.
this is because the new year is still "rolled up", you don't know what's coming, but we hope the year will be full with goodness!
what are the traditions in your part/country?