New Year's Eve and the annual countdown to new year certainly require no introduction. New Year's Eve marks a time to start planning new diets, returning crappy Christmas gifts, making pacts to quit smoking, and cooking elaborate feasts to ensure waddling into the new year completely stuffed with fattening pounds of pork. But for many an American, the countdown to new year commerates the biggest party night of the year. Rest assured, there will be quite a few stumbling drunk hung over folks ringing in the first day of the new year. And while New York City's boogey in Times Square is arguably the biggest countdown to New Year bash of them all, there are plenty of free countdowns to the new year that singles, couples, and even the whole family can get in on. After all, there's nothing worse than spending New Year's Eve at home with Dick Clark.
The Countdown To New Year New York City Style
Before diving right into all of the fun and free haps that serve as a countdown to New Year's Eve, check out the way the New Yorkers party in the new year. Not everyone heads down to Times Square to freeze their buns off you know. There are lots of New York City nightclubs that consider throwing world-class New Year's Eve countdowns as their speciality. Check out some of the coolest New York City hot spots to catch a countdown to new year events:
•Mars 2112: What better way to spend New Year's Eve in New York City than in one of the swankest bars in Times Square?
•Supper Club: Hit up a bit of history to commerate the New Year right in the soul of Times Square
•Sequoia: If you love food and fancy cocktails on the water, then the jammin' New Year's Eve party at the Sequoia is one fest you just can't miss.
•Alphabet Lounge: Don't let the name fool you, you won't find Big Bird or any of the other Sesame Street characters that help you learn your ABC's here at the Alphabet Lounge. But, if you are lucky, you may arrive just in time for the six hour premium bar.
Free Countdowns To New Year's Eve For the Whole Family
But as aforementioned, New York isn't the only American city that's swinging on New Year's Eve. Check out some of the fun and free countdowns to wash out the old and ring in the new on the thirty-first of December:
•Capital New Year: Saint Paul, Minnesota is routinely lumped in as the smaller of the Twin Cities (the other Twin City being Minneapolis, for the geographically challenged). But the capital city of Minnesota reveals the ace in it's hand each New Year's Eve with a Capital New Year. Featuring twenty-five indoor and heated outdoor stages which showcase visual arts and entertainment, Capital New Year highlights more than one hundred performances during the first night of the new year.
•First Night Boston: Now everyone is just dying to party with the largest free New Year's Eve countdown on this side of the Atlantic Ocean. First Night Boston has been "dropping the ball" for years and operating with the ideal of family fun-with no alcohol, of course.
•Fremont Street Experience: What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas...except on New Year's Eve. But the festive events of this West Coast countdown to new year bliss is simply to exquisite to go without a single mention. The city of Las Vegas lights up the sky above Fremont and the famed strip that shares the city's name on the last night of the year-literally. The city throws an elaborate lighting show on New Year's Eve.