Celebrating the New Year in a new and exciting environment is highly desirable - and one of the main bi-products of the increasing number of cheap flights and greater global mobility is that this is becoming more and more possible. People living in Chicago can now choose to celebrate the New Year in Edinburgh, Sydney or Paris; however, you don't have to travel quite so far away from home to enjoy a spectacular party on December 31st. Visit the Winter Festival of Lights being held in Clifton Hills, in Niagara Falls, Ontario this year and you'll be able to count down to the 1st of January in style.

Clifton Hills is the major tourist promenade in the town of Niagara Falls, and this year's New Years Eve festivities will involve performances by 1980s legendary rock band, Foreigner, the Juno Award winning Colin James and the Little Big Band, and rising Canadian talent Justin Hines. 'Party in Niagara' is organised every year by the Niagara Parks Commission and the Niagara Falls New Year's Eve event planners provide party-goers with an outdoor alcohol licensed area, food and drink stalls, and fantastic fireworks over the Niagara Falls waterfalls at both 9pm and midnight.

Best of all, the event is free; held in Queen Victoria Park, it attracts around 30,000 people each year. The event is also covered on television and is screened from 11pm until 12.30am. Jim Williams, chair of the Niagara Parks Commission stated:

"New Year's Eve is one of Niagara Falls' busiest and best nights of the year. With the enthusiasm of all our partners, the whole city is coming alive with more to do than anywhere else in Canada. Visitors and residents should come down and enjoy our entire tourism district in full swing - from great music in Queen Victoria Park to high-energy gaming at Casino Niagara and Fallsview Casino Resort; from the family fun of Clifton Hills to our romantic restaurants and spectacular hotel getaways."