How to celebrate New Year's Eve in NYC

Sure, Times Square on New Year's Eve is fun . . . if you don't mind standing for hours, often in the bitter, bitter cold, penned in with thousands of tourists, defying frostbite, pickpockets and the desperate urges of your bladder. Or you can celebrate as the locals do. Here, four ways to ring in 2011 like a real New Yorker.

EMERALD NUTS MIDNIGHT RUN

Organized by New York Road Runners, this four-mile Central Park fun run is a blast, whether you're running - in warm gear, or crazy costume (see website for details on $55 fee and race-number pickup) - or watching (free). Expect a costume parade, spectacular fireworks and laser light show.

WHEN | WHERE: Dancing at 10 p.m., costume parade at 11 p.m., run and fireworks at midnight. Central Park Bandshell (and thereabouts); enter 72nd Street transverse at Fifth Avenue or Central Park West, 212-860-4455, nyrr.org.

CONCERT FOR PEACE

The glorious Cathedral of St. John the Divine - bigger than St. Pat's - hosts its annual concert, an inspiring, 90-minute celebration of song and candlelight (thousands of candles give a warm, wondrous glow), with Judy Collins, soprano Lauren Flanigan and others, performing Haydn, Sufi music and more.

WHEN | WHERE: 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.), Amsterdam Avenue at West 112th Street. General admission seats free, reserved seats $60, 212-316-7490, stjohndivine.org.

PROSPECT PARK FIREWORKS

If you get ejected from the (notoriously raucous) Mr. Brownstone show (this Guns 'n' Roses tribute band plays The Rock Shop, 249 Fourth Ave., Brooklyn), then chill across town in Park Slope, with live music by Brooklyn's Rock 'N' Soul Experience, midnight fireworks and hot cocoa.

WHEN | WHERE: 11 p.m. Grand Army Plaza, Flatbush Avenue at Prospect Park West (best views of fireworks from Plaza, inside park along the West Drive or Prospect Park West from Plaza to Ninth Street). Free, 718-965-8951, prospectpark.org.

STATEN ISLAND FERRY

Board this (free!) commuters' vessel, order a round of Buds and take in dazzling views of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Liberty Island. The trip is five miles (25 minutes). To see how New York's other islanders party, hop out at St. George ferry terminal, hook a left on Bay Street and grab a burger and brew at pubs such as Cargo Café.

WHEN | WHERE: Ferry runs 24 hours (hourly from Staten Island after 1 a.m.). Departs from Whitehall Terminal (South Ferry), 1 South St., Manhattan. Free, siferry.com.