Top 10 Memorable New Year's Eve Kiss Scenes

There’s nothing like the suspense of trying to beat the clock–especially when it’s counting down to a brand new year. Marissa and Ryan aren’t on the best of terms at this particular moment–you remember the whole “I love you”, “thank you” moment right?–and Marissa decides to spend the night at Oliver’s New Year’s Eve party. Still, as the clock inches closer to midnight, Ryan rushes through the lobby and eventually finds Marissa just in time to give her the perfect midnight kiss. (The slow motion and streamers probably help with that too!)

In contrast to Ryan and Marissa’s perfect New Year’s Eve kiss, here’s one that’s quite a bit different. Stanford and Anthony had always hated each other, but after Carrie’s trainwreck of a wedding, things were different. On the last day of the year, they find each other at a huge party and, with no one else to kiss, they chug their glasses of champagne and pucker up. We’ve all had that just-shrug-and-kiss-the-person-next-to-you sort of NYE smooch–though this one happened to lead to more. It’s actually really sweet when you think about it! Enemies to lovers trope, anyone?

It’s the last day of the ‘70s and Donna reminisces about her relationship with Eric. He’s since come home from Africa to celebrate the New Year with the family, and runs into Donna outside. He admits that he thought of her every day while he was away and apologizes. Donna tackles him with an emotional kiss and we can safely assume they get back together after that. Did you hear that? That was the sound of millions of fans sobbing at this finale. At least one of our ships made it out alive. We’ll never forgive the writers for breaking up Jackie and Hyde though!

According to Ted, New Year’s Eve is always a big letdown, but he decides he’s going to at least try to make it special this year. He rents a limo and plans out a great time but, long story short, things don’t go as planned–(seriously, when do they ever?). It’s three minutes to midnight and the whole gang, plus Robin who joined after Derek stood her up, get stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic. They won’t make it to party number five, but at least they can have their own little party in the limo. Derek shows up at the last minute, but Robin chases Ted instead, and gives him a sweet kiss just past midnight.

Here’s a night that proved just how awesome of a friend Joey is! It’s New Year’s Eve of ‘99 and no one except Joey knows Monica and Chandler are dating. They’d like to share a kiss as the ball drops, but with all their friends around them, they can’t exactly keep things discreet. Joey gets crafty and organizes kisses between the other friends under the ruse that everyone’s kissing someone at midnight. His justifications here are absolutely amazing for one, and for another, it works! Chandler and Monica get their special kiss and no one suspects a thing! At least not until three episodes later…

Was this kiss really that much of a surprise? Our favourite on-again, off-again couple were never really apart for too long and, even with Dan falling for Blair at this point in the series, he still kisses Serena at midnight. Things are complicated all around, with Blair kissing Louis despite lingering feelings for Chuck. Luckily, everything works out for both couples in the season finale’s time jump, where we see Chuck and Blair together, and Serena and Dan getting married. Turns out, their promise for one more try was all they really needed!

Just when it seems like Mark is off to the States, he returns to Bridget’s flat in the nick of time, having decided to stay in London with her. She invites him up and, while she’s “slipping into something more comfortable”, Mark has the chance to read her diary… and all the nasty things Bridget has written about him before she fell for him. Bridget catches him just as he leaves and chases him down to apologize… without any pants on. Hey, nothing says true love like the complete lack of inhibitions. Luckily, Mark was only getting her a new diary and the two of them share a steamy NYE kiss.

Can you even get better casting than Rachel Weisz and Hugh Grant?! This is a super quick and pretty innocent New Year’s kiss, but pretty adorable nonetheless–even with the giant looming lie lingering over their heads. Will doesn’t so much lie as not quite tell the truth when he leads Rachel to believe that he has a son. She tells him she has one of her own and the two swiftly bond over their “shared” experience of parenting. Rachel does inevitably find out about his fib, but Will makes an effort to redeem himself and the two reconcile in the end.

If Rachel Wiesz and Hugh Grant didn’t do it for you, how about Michelle Pfeiffer and Zac Efron? Not a pairing we would have thought of, but still very cute. In a movie that’s titled “New Year’s Eve” there’s bound to be quite a few kisses, but this one has to be the most adorable. When Ingrid quits her job, she enlists delivery man Paul to help her complete her list of New Year’s resolutions before midnight in exchange for four Ahern Records Masquerade Ball tickets. Flash forward, Paul gets the tickets, then drops Ingrid off near the ball drop in Times Square and wishes her luck on accomplishing the final item on her list. He returns soon after to help her complete it himself.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Jenna Hamilton & Jake Rosati, “Awkward” (2011-16)
This Is About as Dramatic as It Gets!

Charlie Brown & Marcie, “Happy New Year, Charlie Brown!” (1986)
Not the Little Red Haired Girl, but It’ll Have to Do!

Dana Scully & Fox Mulder, “The X-Files” (1993-2018)
It Only Took the Start of the New Millenium!

Nickie Ferrante & Terry McKay, “An Affair to Remember” (1957)
We Don’t Even Need to See This Kiss to Know How Romantic It is

This one isn’t a New Year’s Eve kiss, per say, so much as it is a New Year’s Day kiss, if only by a few minutes. Harry shows up at the New Year’s Eve party after his and Sally’s fight. He finds her and declares his love for her as the countdown starts. As it ends, Sally tells him it doesn’t work like that and makes her move to leave. But then Harry goes on to list all the things he loves about her and Sally has quite the difficult time staying upset. This is probably one of the most famous New Year’s kisses in pop culture and for good reason! Name a better declaration of love, we’ll wait…