Vi holder nytår hos mine forældre i år.

In Danish, holde is also used in several very common expressions about celebrations and special occasions.

So holde nytår means celebrate/spend New Year, much like:

• holde jul = celebrate Christmas
• holde fødselsdag = celebrate a birthday

It does not literally mean physically holding something. In this sentence, Vi holder nytår is the natural idiomatic way to say that the speakers are spending or celebrating New Year.

You can also hear fejre nytår, but holde nytår is very common and sounds very natural.

Yes, holder is present tense.

Danish often uses the present tense for a planned future event, especially when there is a time expression like i år.

So:

• Vi holder nytår hos mine forældre i år
  = We’re spending New Year at my parents’ this year

This works just like English We’re spending New Year at my parents’ this year, where the form is present but the meaning is future/planned.

If you wanted, you could add a future marker like skal, but it is not necessary here.

Because holde nytår is a fixed, idiomatic expression.

In Danish, certain holidays and celebrations are often used without an article in this kind of phrase:

• holde jul
• holde påske
• holde nytår

So nytår here behaves more like the name of an occasion than like a regular countable noun.

In this sentence, nytår usually means the New Year celebration, often practically referring to New Year’s Eve/night.

In everyday use, holde nytår usually means celebrating the turn of the year. If someone wants to be more precise about the evening itself, they might say nytårsaften for New Year’s Eve.

So:

• nytår = New Year / the New Year celebration
• nytårsaften = New Year’s Eve

Hos means at someone’s place / with someone.

So hos mine forældre means at my parents’ place.

This is different from i, which usually means in a place, building, city, country, etc.

Compare:

• hos mine forældre = at my parents’ home
• i huset = in the house
• i København = in Copenhagen

English speakers often want to translate at my parents’ very literally, but in Danish hos is the normal choice when talking about being at a person’s home.

Because forældre is plural, and the possessive must agree with that.

The Danish possessives are:

• min = my, for a common-gender singular noun
• mit = my, for a neuter singular noun
• mine = my, for plural nouns

Since forældre means parents and is plural, you need mine:

• min far = my father
• min mor = my mother
• mine forældre = my parents

Yes. Forældre means parents, so it is plural.

The singular is:

• forælder = parent

So:

• min forælder = my parent
• mine forældre = my parents

This is a very useful pattern to notice:

• singular: -er
• plural: -re in this word pair

Yes, it can go somewhere else.

In the sentence Vi holder nytår hos mine forældre i år, i år is a time expression, and putting it at the end is very natural.

But Danish also allows you to move it to the front for emphasis:

• I år holder vi nytår hos mine forældre.

That version emphasizes this year.

Both are correct. The difference is mostly about focus and word order.

The sentence follows normal Danish main-clause word order:

• Vi = subject
• holder = finite verb
• nytår = object / complement of the expression
• hos mine forældre = place
• i år = time

So the structure is essentially:

Subject + verb + rest of sentence

A very important Danish rule is that in a main clause, the finite verb is normally in second position. That is why if you move i år to the front, the verb still stays second:

• I år holder vi nytår hos mine forældre.

Not: I år vi holder...

Yes, forældre is a word many learners find tricky.

A rough guide is:

• forældre ≈ fo-REL-druh
  with the middle syllable stressed

A few useful points:

• æ is a front vowel, somewhat like the vowel in air for many English speakers, but not exactly the same
• the final -e is often weak
• Danish pronunciation is often softer and more reduced than the spelling suggests

You do not need perfect pronunciation right away, but it is worth listening carefully to native audio for forældre, because it is a very common word.