Happy New Year Messages: 62 Wishes for Cards and Texts

A New Year card has an easier job than a Christmas card. Nobody expects a long letter, nobody is keeping count, and the message only has to do one thing: tell someone you’d like them with you in the year ahead. Pick the group below that fits the person, take a line as it is or change a word or two, and add one detail only you could know. Every message here was written for this page.

Happy New Year messages for cards

Warm, all-purpose wishes that suit almost anyone on your list.

Happy New Year. May the next twelve months be generous to you, and may you notice when they are.
Here’s to a year of open doors, good news in the mail and evenings that end later than planned.
New calendar, same old love. Happy New Year to you and everyone under your roof.
May this year bring you work you’re proud of, rest you’ve earned and a few surprises worth telling.
Wishing you a year with more good mornings than you can count and very few alarm clocks.
A clean page, a full kettle and the people you like best within reach. That’s our wish for your year.
Whatever you hope for this year, we hope it finds its way to your door, and soon.
May the year ahead be kind to your health, easy on your plans and full of reasons to celebrate.
We’re glad you were part of the old year. We’d like you in the new one, please.
Happy New Year, from our table to yours. May there always be room at both.
Here’s to the year ahead: steady ground under your feet, and a little sparkle overhead.
Let this be the year the good things arrive on time. Happy New Year.

Short New Year wishes

For the bottom of a card, a gift tag or a quick text after the countdown.

New year, warm wishes.
Cheers to the year ahead.
Twelve fresh months, all yours.
Onward, together.
To brighter days and longer evenings.
May it be a good one.
Here’s to more of us in it.
Happy New Year, with love.
Clink. Happy New Year.
First page, best wishes.

New Year wishes to family

For parents, siblings, grandparents and the cousins you only see at weddings.

Happy New Year to the family that taught us how to welcome one in properly: loudly, late and with too much food.
Mom and Dad (or Mum and Dad), thank you for another year of answered phone calls and unasked-for advice. We needed both.
To my sister: may this year be as good to you as you were to me in the last one.
Grandma, we’re putting your name at the top of this year’s list of reasons to visit. Happy New Year.
Wishing the whole family a year of good health, short waits at the doctor’s office and long Sunday lunches.
We started the year the way you taught us, with the house tidied and a coin in every pocket. Happy New Year from all of us.
To the cousins: let’s make this the year we stop saying “we must get together” and actually do it.
Happy New Year to my brother, who has heard my three jokes every January since 1998 and still pretends they’re new.
May our family’s year be full of the ordinary kind of luck: safe roads, mended roofs and everybody home for supper.

Happy New Year messages for friends

For the friends who were there at midnight, and the ones who wish they had been.

Happy New Year to the friend who knows all my resolutions and has kindly agreed never to mention them again.
Another year of friendship in the bank. Let’s spend some of it on a weekend away.
Thank you for the long talks, the short notice and the spare key. Here’s to more of all three.
You carried more than your share last year. I hope this one hands you something lighter.
Happy New Year, old friend. See you at the next countdown, with the same terrible singing.
To my favorite person to text at midnight: may your year be full of the same good timing.
Here’s to a year of saying yes to plans, no to cancellations and maybe to karaoke.
We’ve been friends for more New Years than either of us will admit. Here’s to the next one.

New Year wishes for someone far away

For family abroad, friends who moved, and anyone counting down in a different time zone.

You’ll be asleep when our clocks strike twelve, so here are our wishes in advance. Happy New Year from the other side of the ocean.
We toasted you at midnight, and then again at your midnight, just to be sure.
The fireworks here were lovely, but the best part of the night was the call from you.
Another year of living in different time zones. Let’s make it the year we share a kitchen again, even for a week.
May your new city feel a little more like home this year. Ours still has a room with your name on it.
Whatever the distance, you’re in our first thoughts of the year. Happy New Year, and come home soon.
We’ve already marked the summer on the calendar. Book the flight and we’ll be at arrivals with a sign.

For someone who had a hard year

Gentle words for a friend who is glad to see the old year go.

You got through a year that would have flattened most of us. I hope the new one is gentle, and I’m here for all of it.
No big resolutions needed. Just a softer year, and people around you who make it easier.
I won’t wish you a perfect year. I’ll wish you a better one, with more good days than you expect.
Last year asked a lot of you. May this one ask very little and give a great deal.
Starting the year thinking of you, and hoping it brings you rest and some good news at last.

Funny New Year wishes

For people who would rather laugh than be moved.

May your resolutions last longer than the leftover party snacks.
Happy New Year. I’ve already written the wrong year on two checks.
This year I resolve to answer your texts within the same week. No promises.
Wishing you a year of good hair days, short meetings and coffee that’s still hot when you remember it.
May your inbox be small, your phone battery full and your diet start next Monday.
Here’s to another year of pretending we’ll go to bed before midnight.

For colleagues, clients and neighbors

Friendly, short and easy to read at a glance.

Wishing you and your family a happy, healthy New Year. It’s a pleasure to work alongside you.
Thank you for a good year of working together. Here’s to an even better one.
Happy New Year to our neighbors, from the house with the overgrown hedge. We’ll trim it this year. Probably.
With good wishes for the year ahead, and thanks for your patience in the last one.
Happy New Year to the best team on the floor. Let’s keep the coffee strong and the deadlines reasonable.

Opening and closing lines

Start the card with a greeting, then your message, then a sign-off.

Openings:

Happy New Year, dear Ellen,
To all of you at number 9,
Hello from the first week of January,
A New Year note for my favorite people,

Sign-offs:

With love and best wishes for the year ahead,
Here’s to the next twelve months,
Until we meet this year,
All the best, from all of us,

Make it personal

Name one thing you’re looking forward to together. A trip, a wedding, a promised visit. A New Year message that points at a real date in the calendar gets remembered.

Say thank you for one thing from last year. Not everything, just one: the lift to the airport, the meal in the freezer, the call that came at the right moment.

Keep a resolution light. If you share one, make it something the reader can tease you about, not something they have to worry about.

Mind the time zones. For family abroad, a line like “we’ll raise a glass at your midnight” shows you were thinking about their evening, not only yours.

If you’re writing before Christmas is over, our page of one message for Christmas and New Year together has wishes that cover both. For Christmas cards to everyone else on your list, there are many more in our full collection of card messages. And if your family comes from Scotland or the north of England, our guide to the first-foot at Hogmanay explains why the first visitor of the year matters so much.

Questions

When should I send a New Year card?

Any time from the days after Christmas to the first week or two of January. A card that arrives on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day feels most like an event; one that arrives in mid-January is still welcome, as long as the message is warm.

Should I write “Happy New Year” or “happy new year”?

As a greeting on its own, at the top of a card, “Happy New Year” with three capitals is the usual form. Inside a sentence, many people write “a happy new year” in lowercase. Either is fine in a card; just be consistent.

Can I send a New Year card instead of a Christmas card?

Yes. It suits friends who don’t celebrate Christmas, people you missed in December, and anyone who would rather hear from you when the rush is over.

Cards for the turn of the year

Our New Year cards begin with Midnight Over the Village: a snowy village at midnight, the clock tower lit, fireworks rising far off over the hills and a fox watching from the snow. Its greeting is “Happy New Year”, or “Best wishes for the New Year” if you prefer, with your own message underneath. Send it by email, share the link by text, or choose the day it should arrive, such as January 1.

If you’re sending a single winter card before Christmas is over, a scene from the cosy classics shelf can carry Season’s Greetings and your New Year wishes together.