Christmas is for children, but New Year's is more for grownups. I no longer stay up to midnight then; I prefer to be in bed, though I'm usually still awake when the fireworks and stuff go off.
East Asians have their own New Year's about a month later, at the time of a new moon. I was actually born on the Chinese New Year's in 1962 (a water tiger year), at the same time as a solar eclipse and a conjunction of five planets in Aquarius had some astrologers predicting the end of the world! (The world almost did end that October with the Cuban Missile Crisis.) Others see it as the start of "the Age of Aquarius"!
I always used to think of the new year as starting in September, because that's when each school year starts. I think the Jewish new year starts around then.
Remember New Year's in 2000 when people were worried about the Y2K turnover bringing down computer systems? (I actually backed up some files to be on the safe side.) But it turned out that the problem had been solved in time.
In Scotland, people used to visit their neighbours on New Year's Day. We should bring that tradition back!
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