New Year's Eve - what's it like for you?

[watchstrap]

A Cousin, we are the home of fireworks here in the UK as we celebrate Guy Fawkes and his Gunpowder Plot on Bonfire Night every November. They are massively popular along the South coast of the UK at the seaside places, where they have a big display each weekend. In fact any old excuse and someone whips out a box and lights them up!
Recently, those chinese lanterns have become popular that float up into the sky and away. I first noticed them in Thailand a couple of years ago where they try and sell them to you along the beachfront restaurants in the evening. Our local party shop was selling them for New Year, although watching them float away whilst freezing to death in the garden didn't really appeal.
I didn't realise that fireworks weren't popular in the US. Aren't they part of the Disney Logo? I do remember some nice ones which we watched from Sarasota airport whilst waiting for a hirecar to be sorted out. It was 4th July and Mr WS hadn't taken this into account when booking our travel/hirecar arrangements. Needless to say I handle these duties now! They could only offer us something called a 'snugtop' which I discovered was a pickup truck with a hard cover. Spent a fortnight pretending I was Daisy Duke! Had a lovely time though.