Dinner for One is the television comedy traditionally watched in Germany on New Year's Eve.
The sketch features an elderly woman, Miss Sophie, celebrating her birthday with an imaginary dinner for four absent friends. Her butler, James, serves each course and repeatedly drinks the guests' toasts, becoming increasingly intoxicated. The performance is in English, but it became a major German New Year's television tradition.
The version most familiar to German viewers was recorded in 1963 by Norddeutscher Rundfunk. Although the program was not originally produced in Germany, repeated broadcasts made it part of the country's annual holiday culture. It has also been shown in several other European countries, especially around New Year.
The title can cause confusion because it sounds like a feature film, but Dinner for One is a short stage sketch. Its famous catchphrase is “The same procedure as every year,” though the phrase is commonly quoted in slightly varying forms.