I just got back from a mini vacation to Gatlinburg for New Year's. If you aren't aware of this, Gatlinburg has a ball drop and fireworks for New Year's. It was AMAZING! The energy really excites you about ringing in the New Year. There was music. M&M characters came by to give out M&Ms. Some places sold decorations and some places just gave them away to get you in their stores (Mr Tablecloth). There was people, sooo many people, in the streets. 5 o'clock Somewhere offered a VIP section in their upstairs section to let you get away from the thousands of people in the streets. They only allowed about 40 people in the VIP section. They even have a balcony so that the people could go out and see the ball drop and the fireworks. Puckers and Crawdaddy's offered a 2 bars for 1 pass. You could go between the two all night long. Some restaurants were offering New Year's specials. BEWARE!! Parking is atrocious! We stayed at the Microtel to be as close to the Space Needle as possible (We wanted to stay with mountainchalets.com, but by the time we had decided to go to Gatlinburg all of their chalets and I mean all of the chalets [even the really expensive ones that have the indoor pools] were rented. This should tell you how many people were there). The parking lot behind the hotel took 3 hours to clear out. People were crazy! Remember if you go to Gatlinburg for New Year's to check the weather. It was very cold this year! Hot Chocolate and heated shops were my best friend while walking down the parkway.