Evanston, Illinois has a First Night celebration. The early evening is structured for families with young kids, and they do a "mini countdown" I think at 6 or 7 PM. In the evening there's live music. I'm not a fan of New Year's Eve - when I was a staff nurse I usually had to work, which was okay with me. On New Year's Day we're invited to my cousins' house (parents, siblings and me) for part of the afternoon. We did this last year and it worked out great- sandwiches, cookies, brownies and family time.