WHILE Christmas celebrations emphasise family togetherness, New Year's Eve concentrates on friends. The truly brave and indefatigable gather together their nearest and dearest social acquaintances, seizing a platinum opportunity to enjoy their company on perhaps the only night in the year when all are well rested, well fed and well able to let their hair down simultaneously.
Maudlin reminiscences and corny resolutions are far from de riguer. However, they are a mostly welcome part of the mythology and ritual of the event. New Year's Eve just wouldn't be the same without someone swearing they were going to get fit or read the classics - or crying their eyes out in the loo.
What else makes it special? Besides too much champagne, some awkward smooching, big band music, party hats and noisemakers, you have to have company. And it's truly one occasion where the more, the merrier.
The textbook formula for a successful do has as its backbone a fairly straight forward checklist but plenty of parties still flop. Perhaps the pressure to succeed has something to do with it - everyone but everyone knows this night is supposed to be serious fun. That would explain in part why some of the best parties are of the more impromptu variety. Who knows? There's no accounting for chemistry - although, as always, hosts and hostesses set the tone. They either have that Copperfield touch ... or they don't.
One of the big pitfalls is having a New Year's party that peaks too soon. There is a sizeable contingent for whom the notion of focusing on one, watershed second is too ridiculous to contemplate. However, that doesn't mean they feel like staying at home and crawling into bed unusually early in protest.
Some, like film producer Katy McGuinness and architect Felim Dunne, take the bull by the horns and give a party themselves. This year, the pair (well known for their seemingly effortless but expansive hospitality and gourmet flair) are inviting 30 people over for venison stew, champagne and dancing. They insist the format will be the same as for any of their other dinner parties. Although Dunne maintains that "the magic is that it's going to happen at all", it will no doubt be a night to remember. If all goes according to plan, the hosts will make one special concession to the occasion they will pass around an inexhaustible Polaroid to create an accidental record of the evening which will probably be a talking point right through 1997.
Amanda Pratt of Avoca Handweavers, who has given eight New Year's bashes - some of them legendary (including her 21st, which she celebrated on the night although her birthday is in June) - firmly believes New Year's Eve isn't just another night or a flimsy excuse for a party. She goes to tremendous lengths to decorate the table and house imaginatively and feels it's a mistake to tell people a party is going to be casual.
"You have to build it up and involve people," she says with conviction. Three years ago, she and her husband, copy writer Tom Kelly, assigned guests different preparatory tasks and the outcome was truly spectacular. Everything and everybody glittered. Creativity carries through to the smallest details. Last year, she greeted two dozen guests wearing a pair of her daughter's angel wings and confiscated everyone's watches so all night would be midnight.
It's the ideal night to have a party. People are in unusually good form and are more committed than usual to having a good time and making a special effort.
Mark McGurrin, Una Mullarkey, Matt Spalding and Stephen Cavanagh hope so. They are planning a private party for 80 friends in their brand new restaurant on Dublin's South Richmond Street in Portobello, the Pad Thai (There's a surefire way to get around finding a caterer and a venue open your own restaurant.) Lucky guests will be treated to a sumptuous buffet, then the can adjourn downstairs where a DJ will play progressively younger dance music as the night wears on. The magic wilt come from the food primarily (hot stuff) but hopefully things will take off from there. "The last two years have been a real let down so this year we're aiming to reverse the trend.
IN the if you can't beat them join them department, Tina Denis and David Heffernan will throw their second, annual, multi-generational party at their home. Friends bring their children along last year all ages were represented, from infants to teens. Dancing was the main event, though food was delicious and plentiful.
"This year I'll cook a lot less," says Tina. No wonder. Her freezer was still full of barbecued spare ribs at Easter.
Even so, she feels offering some hots food is important. Drink will be varied eggnog on arrival, mulled wine, beer, wine and, of course, champagne afterwards.
Ritual plays an important part in many people's celebrations. A set menu and guest list may be the constant that sees people through ups and downs, in and out of decades. Deputy Mary O'Rourke gets together with the same core group of friends (they used to bed four couples but have recently embraced a fifth) every year for as long as she can remember. They go from house to house for a marathon chat session and hearty feed ("eat now for tomorrow we diet" - This year it's her turn to host the evening with husband Enda. She's looking forward to it - even the cooking as she never has to do Christmas dinner which) is spent with the in laws. The menu? Roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roasties and of course all the trimmings. Certain universal laws of entertaining apply; no one is exempt from hostess nerves and kitchen angst.
"We start out preparing everything together as great friends but just before the guests arrive tempers usually flare." No matter. The company of close friends means everyone soon relaxes and is able to enjoy "hours and hours of lovely talk, talk, talk without inhibitions".
Sisters Shona and Ann O'Neill are veteran New Year's Eve hostesses, although motherhood has put a temporary damper on proceedings. They are great advocates of the theme party. An Abba Gold party was by all accounts one of their greatest ever efforts. The choice of Black Velvet as drink of the night (a natural decision as Shona is sponsorship manager for Guinness) was partly responsible for the party's success, but so too was the music which appealed to guests of all ages. The party raged until dawn, although at 11.45 p.m. both women had been convinced no one was going to arrive.
"You have to beg people to come early otherwise you go crazy thinking no one is ever going to come." This is by no means an unjustified concern - conventional etiquette seems to lapse for the night as people stray from their plans at the slightest distraction. The poor, unhappy, would be hosts left sitting on stacked crates of champagne in an empty marquee are sadly not just another modern legend.
