First Night
Monday, December 31
Everywhere (see below)
All outdoor events are free.
All indoor events are accessible with a First Night button ($15)
Official First Night site

Artists use the cold weather to their advantage with ice sculptures. The sculptures will be on the Common starting at 1:00 pm until midnight. You can look at a frozen version of Florida courtesy of Donald Chapelle, an American eagle that would make Stephen Colbert proud, and a dove of piece. Chapelle will also create an ice sculpture of a shark by the New England Aquarium.

But the wildest ice artwork isn't a traditional sculpture. Evelyn Ellias's installation, "Subzero Unity Project: The Great Indoors" will show revelers how it feels to be an ice cube, as if living in Boston in winter doesn't give a good enough idea. Here's the description provided by the First Night website:

She has created two large plastic ice cube trays, in which people can sit. These trays are surrounded by an inflatable ice cube, and a refrigerator door is opened and closed to let people in and out (with accompanying refrigerator lighting - off when closed and on when open!)

Whether or not you think the project is art, it will still make for a fun game of hide-and-seek.

First Night buttons can be purchased for $15 at Shaw's and Star Markets, Store 24, L'il Peach, Tedeschi's, and Au Bon Pain. On December 31, you can get the buttons for $20 at the Hynes Convention Center and at booths on the Common and at the Public Garden. All button locations can be found at the First Night site.

Image of ice sculptor Donald Chapelle at work by Paul Robicheau.