My last-minute guide to New Year’s Eve in New York City, when 2025 turns into 2026, features information on:
Times Square.
Dining Out,
Theater (Plays as parties, Broadway show schedule, family shows, movies).
parties.
concerts.
cabaret.
cruises.
fireworks.
quiet or healthy alternatives.
TV .
New Year’s Eve in New York means the dropping of the ball in Times Square, the fireworks in Prospect Park, the annual concert at St. John the Divine, the midnight run in Central Park, the annual Time’s Up Bike Ride — all of these FREE, and almost all of them events you can decide to attend at the last minute…and by yourself.
It also can mean obscenely expensive shows and extremely loud parties, an annual arena concert featuring Phish and new cabaret acts, a cruise in the harbor, or a dinner for two in your favorite eatery — much but not all of which is sold out weeks if not months in advance.
It needs be said that you can celebrate New Year’s Eve without leaving home. But this is New York City, we’ll be ushering in a big year — the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence and the founding of the United States of America — so I understand the pressure is on. A good approach to minimize frustration is to adjust the timeframe for this particular holiday as not just the night that the ball drops, but the days before and after it. With that in mind, here are some ideas for those New Yorkers (and New York visitors) who haven’t made any plans yet.
TIMES SQUARE
If you decide to stand in person at the Crossroads of the World on December 31st, the Times Square Alliance explains the ins and outs of the event. You’ll be joining a celebration that began in 1907, when people stood in (the then-recently named) Times Square to watch the lowering of a ball made of iron and wood, weighing 700 pounds, and covered with 100 light bulbs. This year, the ninth version of the Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball, dubbed The Constellation Ball, weighs 12,350 pounds, and is covered with 5,288 circular Waterford Crystal discs that refract the light from more than 32,000 LED (light emitting diode) pucks. A computer will lower it from a 139-foot pole atop One Times Square. (Soon, for the first time, the ball will be on close-up and permanent display from a viewing deck for a ticket price starting at $45; for $295, a ticket holder will be able to take a crystal from the ball as a keepsake and also write a New Year’s Eve message on confetti.)
If you’re reading this before Sunday December 28 you might consider going to Times Square that day to attend “Good Riddance Day” from noon to 1 p.m., in which participants shed bad memories and memorabilia of 2025 (an old bill, an ex-love note, a bad report card, a Playbill of a show you’d rather forget, an exasperating old laptop, a campaign poster?) in a ceremonial shredding on the Broadway Plaza between 45th & 46th Streets
On Wednesday — New Year’s Eve — revelers will start arriving at Times Square in the afternoon, if not earlier. By approximately 3:00 PM., the Bowtie of Times Square (42nd to 47th Sts. between Broadway & 7th Ave.) is fully closed to traffic The crowd, which in the past has reached in the millions, could go as far uptown as Central Park, 17 blocks away.
Another way of saying this: If you want to be within naked-eyesight of the Times Square ball, arrive in the afternoon, and be prepared to stand immobile until the ball drops at midnight. Wear warm clothing, and huddle with friends and loved ones for warmth – or make new friends.
Times Square offers an outdoor evening of entertainment, beginning at 6 p.m. with the lighting and raising of the Times Square ball and culminating six hours later in confetti, the “2026” sign in lights, lots of hugging and wishing for a Happy New Year
Should you go? I’ve spent three New Year’s Eves in Times Square, which is probably two more than necessary, but found each memorable. One tip: Look at the weather report. The average temperature on New Year’s Eve in Times Square has been just above freezing, 33 degrees. As of this writing, the forecast for this New Year’s Eve suggests a low of 26 degrees with “occasional snow” early in the day and the possibility of a “late stray flurry”
Want to participate without the crowds and the cold? The ball drop will be live-streamed at timessquareball.net and on the Times Square Alliance website
DINING OUT ON NEW YEAR’S EVE
Open Table lists more than 300 restaurants “open for New Year’s Eve in New York City.” But what restaurant would stay closed on the most lucrative night of the year for them? The food blog Eater recommends 16 restaurants to celebrate New Year’s Eve, and TimeOut a different 14. Most of them offer a choice of seatings – either earlier in the evening, so that you can make it in time elsewhere for the stroke of midnight, or party-hat-equipped seatings that lead up to midnight, where you can often turn on a TV so that you can watch the ball drop in Times Square. Open Table provides all sorts of filters — you can look, say, for a table for 2 at a “charming” French restaurant at 7 pm in your specific neighborhood.
Have a favorite neighborhood eatery that’s not listed on Open Table or among those recommended? Search to see if they have a website or simply visit the place NOW, and ask them whether they will take reservations.
THEATER
For years, the McKittrick Hotel, which wasn’t a hotel at all but the converted warehouse that housed the immersive theater “Sleep No More,” really did it up on New Year’s Eve, combining the show with a luxurious after-party.
As of the beginning of 2025, “Sleep No More” is no more in New York, but there is a new immersive hit in town, “Masquerade,” in a converted art supply store meant to evoke the Paris Opera House, and they will be offering Bal Lumière “an intimate masked soirée following the December 31 evening performance.”
Similarly, XIV Company once again combines a choice of soirees for the New Year’s Eve performance of its tNutcracker Rouge,”
Broadway Performance Times for New Year’s Week
New Year’s Eve is not the best day for Broadway — there are only two shows performing that Wednesday, Ragtime (which is at Lincoln Center) Aladdin (on 42nd Street!), both of them matinees.
But the days before and after it are packed with extra performances.
(Note: The titles link to my reviews when available. The times of added performances are in boldface. The changed times are in italics. This chart is not decipherable on smartphones, only on computers and tablets)
| SHOW | Mon. December 29 | Tue. December 30 | Wed. December 31 | Thu. January 1 | Fri. January 2 | Sat. January 3 | Sun. January 4 |
| & Juliet | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | |||
| Aladdin | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 1pm | 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm | |
| All Out: Comedy About Ambition | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 7:30pm | 5pm, 8:30pm | 2pm, 6:30pm | ||
| Beetlejuice | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 8pm | CLOSED | |
| The Book of Mormon | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm | ||
| Buena Vista Social Club | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | ||
| Bug | 7pm | 7pm | 7pm | 7pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | |
| Chess | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 3pm | ||
| Chicago | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 7pm | 2:30pm, 8pm | 2:30pm, 8pm | ||
| Death Becomes Her | 2pm, 7:30pm | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm | ||
| The Great Gatsby | 7pm | 7pm | 7pm | 7pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm | |
| Hadestown | DARK | 2pm, 7:30pm | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm | |
| Hamilton | 7pm | 1pm, 7pm | 7pm | 7pm | 1pm, 7pm | 1pm | |
| Harry Potter… and the Cursed Child | 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm | ||
| Hell’s Kitchen | 2pm, 7:30pm | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm | ||
| Just in Time | 2pm, 8pm | 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm | ||
| Liberation | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | |||
| The Lion King | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm, | ||
| Mamma Mia! | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm, | |
| Marjorie Prime | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 7pm | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm | |
| Maybe Happy Ending | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm | ||
| MJ | 7pm | 1pm, 7pm | 1pm, 7pm | 1pm, 7pm | 3pm | ||
| Moulin Rouge! | 7pm | 1:30pm, 7:30pm | 7pm | 7pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm | |
| Oedipus | 7pm | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | ||
| Oh, Mary! | 7:30pm | 3pm, 7:30pm | 7:30pm | 5pm, 8:30pm | 2pm, 6:30pm | ||
| Operation Mincemeat | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm | ||
| The Outsiders | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 7pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm | |
| Ragtime | DARK | 7pm | 2pm | 7pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 3pm |
| Six | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 3pm, 8pm | 2pm | ||
| Stranger Things: The First Shadow | 7pm | 7pm | 1pm, 7pm | 1pm, 7pm | 1pm | ||
| Two Strangers (Carry a Cake Across New York) | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 2pm, 7:30pm | 3pm | ||
| Waiting for Godot | 7pm | 2pm, 7pm | 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | ||
| Wicked | 8pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm, 7pm | 2pm, 8pm | 2pm |
Shows closing soon:
Beetlejuice January 3
Waiting for Godot January 4
Liberation and Mamma Mia February 1
Family Shows Not on Broadway
The Rockettes in the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (11 a.m. and 2 p.m.) Read about my recent revisit
Big Apple Circus at Lincoln Center
“George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” (2 p.m.)
Check out my spirited 2025 guide to holiday shows in NYC
Movies
You could certainly see a movie — just not in any cinema in Times Square. Here are my capsule reviews of eight movies currently in cinemas.throughout the city
Why not check out the arthouse films at one of New York’s supercool (and dwindling) independent movie houses:
Film Forum is presenting six films on New Year’s Eve including (aptly?) Billy Wilder’s “Lost Weekend.”
IFC Center is offering eight films (some of them first-run) and season 2 of Twin Peaks
Metrograph is running 11 films on New Year’s Eve, the last of which is HappyEnd
Angelika Film Center has the most off-beat of the new releases
NEW YEAR’S EVE PARTIES
New York is vast and diverse, a city tailor-made for any taste, so it isn’t surprising that Eventbrite lists more than 1,200 New Year’s Eve parties this year. I’m not sure whether all of them would fit your definition of a party, but you can apply various filters – date, of course, also neighborhood, type of music; you can even search for parties that claim to be free (free admission perhaps, but they surely get you on the booze)
Some parties are perennials, such as Soho Grand’s 16th Annual Black and White Masquerade Ball, “an ode to Truman Capote’s infamous Grand Masked Ball, hosted in New York 1966.”
You can dance at parties set up in Times Square venues. Most promote a great view of the ball dropping; some are in area hotels, convenient if you don’t want to worry about getting home that night (and don’t have financial worries, since these can cost into the thousands.)
And, if you can’t decide on just one place to hang out, there’s “Crawl Til The Ball Falls,” a pub crawl through 12 bars in the East Village over eight hours, which seems like the sort of thing you should do only once.
Host Your Own
There are many articles this time of year offering advice on how to throw your own New Year’s Eve party, House Beautiful recommends 40 Elevated New Year’s Eve Party Ideas to Ring In 2026, (Make it a Masquerade Ball; Set up a separate resolution-writing station.), Real Simple suggests 7 Low-Effort Ways to Celebrate New Year’s Eve That Still Feel Special (focus on appetizers, or make it potluck; “Keep subtle motion in the room by keeping a ceiling fan on low, a fireplace going, or even a classic movie playing silently in the background. Gentle movement brings a sense of warmth, making your space instantly more welcoming.”)
The most memorable advice for throwing a party came from Joan Crawford, who was quite a partier in her day. Her advice (see below) can be summed up as:
- Have a mix of people as your guests, but nobody with dirty feet.
- Secretly drug them.
CONCERTS
Classical
St. John the Divine Concert for Peace
This annual event was founded in 1984 by Leonard Bernstein. The program this year , from 7 to 8:30 pm (and likely sold out by the time you read this) will once again feature Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, with commentary by journalist Harry Smith.
“I Puritani” at the Metropolitan Opera, its first new production of Bellini’s opera in almost 50 years
Jazz
Dizzy’s New Year’s Eve with Carlos Henriquez Nonet: A Nuyorican Tale , at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
Pop
Phish will perform at Madison Square Garden for its usual four-day New Year’s run, the last of which is on December 31st. The New Year’s Eve concert is likely sold out. BUT, you can see all four nights live online.
Gov’t Mule returns to Beacon Theater. (an American Southern rock jam band, formed in 1994 as a side project of the Allman Brothers Band.)
CABARET
With the repeal in 2017 of the hated 91-year-old Cabaret Law, which banned dancing or musical entertainment at all but a handful of licensed venues that served food or drink (fewer than 100), you could argue that life is a cabaret (or at least could be) at all 25,000 eating and drinking establishments in New York City. But “cabaret” has come to define specific genres of intimate theater-adjacent entertainment at just a few, relatively small venues, such as those below.
Tip: Most cabarets offer two seatings on New Year’s Eve. The one earlier in the evening is far less expensive.
Sandra Bernhard Caught Off Guard, Joe’s Pub
Her annual six-night gig ends with two shows on New Year’s Eve. “These are crazy, how-low-can-we-go-times and Sandy doesn’t like that vibe! But she’s rising to the occasion, even when she’s Caught Off Guard, which is on a daily basis…”
Bernhard is one of the performers who put on a New Year’s show at the same venue every year — a wonderful tradition that makes last-minute tickets chancy. However, the website for Joe’s Pub explicitly says “Tickets may be available for in-person, walk-up sale right before the show begins.”
New Year’s Eve with Charles Busch is the early show, and New Year’s Eve with Joy Woods the late show, at 54 Below. (Busch is the Tony-nominated playwright, actor, director, novelist, cabaret performer, and drag icon. Woods was nominate for a Tony for portraying the title character in Gypsy.
Marilyn Maye at Birdland, still wowing at 97, her four-night gig beginning on New Year’s Eve.
FIREWORKS
Times Square of course continues its 121-year tradition of greeting the new year with fireworks (as well as confetti), but fireworks displays are happening else in the city, from Central Park to Coney Island, and, most noticeably Prospect Park, which continues its 45-year tradition of midnight fireworks, free at Grand Army Plaza, “to light up the skies above Brooklyn’s Backyard.” It is preceded by live entertainment by Quintessential Playlist start at 10 p.m.
HARBOR CRUISES
One of the best views of some of the fireworks displays is on New York’s waterways. Circle Line offers a three-hour party cruise, leaving from Pier 83 (42nd Street) in Manhattan. Liberty Cruise, a three and a half hour cruise, leaves from Pier 36 (299 South St) Skyline Cruises offers a five-hour cruise leaving from The World’s Fair Marina in Flushing Queens
HEALTHY ALTERNATIVES
A MEDITATIVE ALTERNATIVE
The Kadampa Meditation Center in Chelsea, $60 for non-members, offers its 31st annual New Year’s Eve meditation and celebration for “Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike” with vegetarian hot d’oevres and no alcohol. Pre-registration is recommended. Members can attend online. 9 p.m. to midnight.
WALKING, RUNNING AND BIKING
New York Road Runners’ Midnight Run in Central Park
Shorewalkers Happy New Years Day Hike — Starting at noon on the northern end of Manhattan, walk under three great bridges that span the Harlem River in High Bridge Park. If there’s heavy rain (and there might be) it will be canceled.
Time’s Up environmental action organization returns with its annual Future Positive New Year’s Eve Bike Ride
WHAT’S ON TV
ABC: “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest 2026,” wlth performances by Diana Ross, Rita Ora, Chance the Rapper
CBS:; “New Year’s Eve Live: Nashville’s Big Bash,” with Jason Aldean, Lainey Wilson and Bailey Zimmerman
CNN: “New Year’s Eve Live,” with hosts Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper.
