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By Beth Rubin Maryland.com
If you’re a traditionalist, I’ll guess you celebrate New Year’s Eve by partying with friends or dining in an upscale restaurant with Someone Special. December 31 is the biggest night of the year for many restaurants, owing to their "special" multi-course, fixed-price menus. Most places will toss in a glass of champagne or wine, music, noisemakers and hats, and other extras to create a Mardi Gras ambiance (and to ease the sticker shock).
Beth Rubin Downtown setting of First Night Annapolis. While getting gussied up to eat out on New Year's Eve isn't everyone's idea of fun, this is a boating capital and the prevailing wisdom is: whatever floats your barque. Just be sure to call and make a dinner reservation ASAP—like yesterday.
Call me a curmudgeon, but it's the one night I prefer not to dine out. It's just not my cup of glog. Fortunately, there are other ways to boot out the old and ring in the new for those of us who disdain pressing flesh and modeling lampshades.
One couple I know are in bed reading by 9pm. Another pair hightails it to the Caribbean where they toast the new year with rum drinks and snorkeling. Somewhere in between these extremes are some pleasing alternatives that are hassle-free and require little advance planning. Best of all, you don't have to change clothes.
Feed on Eye Candy I like to slip into my best duds (clean jeans because it is a holiday) and catch a late-afternoon flick. My fave time is the screening around 4 or 5 pm. This so-called Twilight (or Twilite) Show is when local theaters offer their lowest-priced tickets along with plenty of seats. Afterward, it's a no-brainer to grab dinner close to the theater in the mall or shopping center; or fall into a neighborhood joint. Sometimes I get dinner to go and enjoy it by the woodstove in my cozy old bathrobe. If I'm still awake at midnight, I pop the cork on some bubbly. The choice is yours whether to toss the glasses into the fire—or the dishwasher.
If you've seen everything playing at the local theaters, rent a vintage film at Annebeth's (75 Maryland Ave, 410-990-9700). Annebeth's stocks such classics as "The Maltese Falcon," "Citizen Kane" and "The Philadelphia Story" along with an extensive collection of the best foreign films of the last 50 years. Annebeth's will be open December 31 until 6 pm. Parking is spotty at best, so go early in the day or let your friend pick up a movie while you double park or circle.
Family fun First Night Annapolis, an alcohol-free New Year's tradition for more than 15 years, is the block party to end all block parties. No wonder this festive holiday ritual draws families in droves. Throughout the city—from St. Johns College to Church Circle to City Dock— an amazing array of talent fills public buildings, churches and storefronts. Headlining this year are gospel, bluegrass, Celtic, jazz and funk groups; singers from the Annapolis Opera; Latin dancing (demos and lessons), mime artists, slam poetry, and abbreviated theater performances. Have your handwriting analyzed and find out what the new year has in store.
Veterans of garage bands are invited to dust off their gee-tars or mouth organs and join local musicians at Acousticopia (55 West St.) for open mike. From 3 to 6pm, special kids' entertainment, activities and face painting are featured at Maryland Hall (801 Chase St.). Beginning at 6pm, performances are staggered throughout the evening. Most end before 11pm, allowing revelers to make their way to the waterfront for a bagpipe parade and midnight fireworks over the harbor. Warm-up centers, with hot and cold beverages and snacks (and restrooms) are strategically located. Bundle up! It's always a few degrees cooler near the bay. When the winds whips off the water, you'll be glad you wore a knit cap that covers your ears.
Beth Rubin Revelers will converge on Main Street. Admission buttons—$15 for adults, $10 kids 6-12, free 5 and under—are available until Dec. 31 at Giand Food stores (Anne Arundel County, Bowie, Columbia). The cost is $20 on the 31st. You may also purchase buttons online and pick them up at the Post Office on Church Circle. Parking is at the USNA Stadium on Rowe Boulevard, with frequent shuttle service to and from downtown. As of Dec. 15, the bed and breakfasts we called were filled for Dec. 31. Some rooms were available at Loews Annapolis Hotel (126 West St., 410-263-7777) and Annapolis Marriott Waterfront (80 Compromise St., 888-777-0786). For more First Night Annapolis information call 410-268-8554 or go to: www.firstnightannapolis.org.
Catch Some Seafood You don't have to trek to New England to enjoy a fine seafood dinner. Dig out your crab mallets and crackers and dig into a fully prepared lobster dinner for a fraction of what you'd pay in a restaurant. (And you don't have to tip.) Just dial up any of the Annapolis Seafood Market's three locations. They'll put together a feast that will convince you you're in Maine. A standard dinner includes two 1 1/2-pound lobsters, a pound of steamed shrimp, snow crab clusters or mussels, and chowder. Or create your own menu. At this time of year the market price runs between $50 and $65. (Remember, that's for two hungry auld lang syners.) For ambiance, hang fishnet from the chandelier and string seaweed on the Christmas tree.
Beth Rubin Have lobster at home on New Year's Eve. Order before 5pm Dec. 31 or, better yet, a day or two earlier. Pick up your bounty no later than 7:59pm on New Year's Eve or you'll be eating PB&J. (Annapolis Seafood, 1300 Forest Dr., Annapolis, 410-295-5380; Edgewater, 410-956-2023; Severna Park, 410-544-4900.)
Whatever you do—whether a chauffeured limo whisks you from party to party or you stay home and wash socks —here's wishing you and yours a very happy and healthy 2005!
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Annapolis author/writer Beth Rubin has been known to conk out well before midnight on New Year's Eve.
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Comments from users:
Ian Rosengarten San Diego ianrosengaten AT sdcounty DOT ca DOT gov
Wow, I just read your wonderful article and have decided to cancel my plans to toast the New Year with my wife in Kona, Hawaii! I am definitely going to book a flight to BWIA and sample the sumptuos lobster feat you described. hopefully she will understand.
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