How to Spend New Year's Eve

How will you spend New Year’s?

Are you planning to attend a fancy party? Will you select the perfect outfit, complemented by the perfect accessories and stand around with a hundred other friends and strangers at an upscale restaurant or a yacht club or a ballroom, dancing to the strains of a jazz band or a cover band or a DJ, waiting till the hands inch towards their fully upright position?

Will you travel into Boston and celebrate “First Night”? Personally, I never understood why it was called “First Night”, being the last night of the year, but I’ve gone into the city on several New Year’s eves to wander the streets listening to those obnoxious horns, looking at impossibly complicated ice sculptures and enjoying the camaraderie of thousands of other Bostonians gathered together for the simple act of bringing one more year to a close and welcoming another.

Will you celebrate at home with friends and family? This has been one of my favorite ways to ring in the New Year. My children are of an age where they are able to stay up till midnight without being pumped full of soda and sugar and other caffeinated treats. They are actually the ones that rouse me when I’m dozing through the 11 o’clock news, urging me to hold on so I can see the ball drop on television. Last year we had a Wii-a-thon, facing off against each other at tennis, bowling and baseball, finally coming together as a family just before midnight to play Rock Band (we take turns on drums, vocals and guitar, being extremely careful never to hand the microphone over to my tone-deaf husband).

Will you make the pilgrimage to Times Square in NYC and squeeze your way in amongst the revelers? I imagine Times Square on New Year’s Eve feels a little bit like a can of sardines or a pen of cattle, one giant swirling mass of bodies wearing silly hats and glittery glasses in the shape of 2011. I’ve never celebrated New Year’s in Times Square but I imagine that the memory would last long after the confetti is shaken out of your coat pockets and shoes. I prefer to celebrate vicariously through my television, tuning in to Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve, which has recently been taken over by Ryan Seacrest, though they still wheel out poor Dick Clark at midnight so those of us at home can see that age has finally caught up with him. Performers for this year’s program include The New Kids On The Block and The Backstreet Boys. Wait a minute…this is 2010, right?

Will you spend New Year’s Eve alone? Is someone you love serving in the armed forces overseas? Are your children scattered throughout the country, attending college or spending the holiday with families of their own? Are you struggling with the loss of a spouse or a parent? Perhaps you’re overwhelmed by all the chaos of the holidays and just prefer to ring in the New Year with a little peace and quiet.
Are you working on New Year’s Eve? Are you a nurse on shift at the hospital, or a firefighter or EMT on call for the evening? Are you a police officer who needs to patrol the streets of our town, keeping watch that revelers who have overindulged are not a danger to themselves or others? Will you ring in the New Year saving a life? If so, then your community thanks you.

I choose to spend the night with family, reflecting on the blessings we received in 2010: My husband’s new job, his recovery from appendicitis and my children’s good health and good performance in school.; my faith that is reinforced by my wonderful church and my bible study; my friends who listen without judging; my job which allows me to share laughter and tears each week with my readers.

However you choose to celebrate, I wish you a safe, peaceful and joyous New Year.