Last year, kiddo was invited to a friends NYE celebration... the kids had crafts to do and they made spaghetti... and then at 8:30, they had a mirror ball that dropped and the kids threw confetti... and of course with the kids average age of 3, the ball had to drop a couple of times and more confetti to throw... haha... it was fun. Then we came home and watched a movie until midnight... even since I was a little kid, we would have a mini-feast with midnight... ham sandwiches, cheese and sausage, egg nog, egg dip, taco dip and what ever else we wanted... and of course herring... German tradition is to eat 12 pieces of herring by the stroke of midnight, one piece for each month of the coming year to ensure financial health.
And also a throw back to my childhood... I would spend the night at my grandfather's, sleeping in the living room... and early in the morning, my grandpa would sneak in and turn on the christmas tree lights... so we started at our house where kiddo and I sleep on the sofa in the living room NYE...
NYE has always been my most favorite holiday... I have lots of happy memories of my beloved Grandpa on this night... we would always listen to big band music on the radio and didn't find out until 15 years later, that I was listening to my futher father-in-law's radio show...
ETA: Doh! I just read your post about not having kids... sorry - I'm s slow typer... haha... I can't help, before kiddio, I went and helped hubby at the radio station... we would still have our mini-feast... I would scrap and hubby was busy doing his thing with FIL.