With the menacing fixture of the Dom in the city center, Cologne has one of the country's premier Christmas festivals, where you can get drunk on hot wine and buy some wooden toys for the kids. There's even a chocolate factory and museum to visit, called Stollwerck. Then head to the Bahamas where the party is just getting started. The annual Junkanoo is a Bahamian mega-party that starts in the wee hours of Dec. 26 and again on Jan. 1. Hog Heaven in Scotland For New Year's Eve, head to Glasgow or Edinburgh for Scotland's Hogmanay.
Celebrations start early in the day and long into the next.
Hogmanay is the Scottish New Year. Nobody is quite sure where the name comes from. Hogmanay's roots reach back to the pagan practice of sun and fire worship in the winter. Edinburgh is the proclaimed capital of Hogmanay and where the major party takes place. The celebration starts Dec. 29 and lasts until Jan. 1.