New Year's Traditions Around the World

1 MOST OF US spend the final seconds of each calendar year watching a nearly 12,000-pound geodesic sphere descend over Times Square in New York City.

-  Eric Raskin

Close to 60,000 spectators gather to see the ball drop in person, but if being one of them is on your bucket list, be forewarned: There are no bathrooms, and to get a good view, you'll likely need to snag your spot (and start holding it) around 3 p.m.

2 ANOTHER GREAT American New Year's tradition: watching college football. Four big bowl games will play out over the holiday: the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31, then the Peach, Sugar and Rose Bowls, all on Jan. 1. The latter is preceded by the Rose Parade through Pasadena, California, with some 50 floats, each adorned with as many flowers as a typical florist sells in five years.

3 NEW YEAR'S Eve in Scotland is known as Hogmanay. The Scots stretch it into a three-day celebration starting with a parade through Edinburgh on Dec. 30, followed by a housecleaning known as the redding. Then, during "first footing," friends and family visit each other after midnight to become the first to set foot in each others' homes in the new year. For good luck, the first visitor should be a tall, dark-haired male (a contrast to the blond Viking invaders of Scotland's past), toting shortbread, whisky and a lump of coal. So if you find coal in your Christmas stocking, ship it to your friends in Scotland to use a few days later.