Celebrate New Year's Eve 6 ways in Philly

There's a question that always looms around this time: What are you doing New Year's Eve?

Here are several options if you don't have your party nailed down (all prices per person).

Local hipster dance fiends live for every wild, electro-hop party thrown by Making Time throughout the year, yet nothing compares to the frenzied fun of that DJ collective's annual Dec. 31 jam. Union Transfer's two floors and multiple rooms make it easier for the planners to weave musical magic. Klip TV provides equally freaky visuals. Plus, they promise that they'll tell you where the after-party is.

9 p.m. to 2 a.m., Union Transfer, 1026 Spring Garden St. Tickets: $40 (first 100 tickets)/$50 after (includes 5-hour open bar).
Info: 215-232-2100 or makingtimeisrad.com

Center City's U-Bahn celebrates its first New Year's Eve with an Eyes Wide Shut Masquerade. OK, maybe that film reference is a little long in the tooth (why not a Force Awakens party? Hateful Eight or Carol even?). But 1999's Eyes Wide Shut's naughty, masked costuming will never go out of style. The fact that the masked party - with a DJ and live band TBD - is held deep below the belly of Chestnut Street in U-Bahn's basement boite is the real selling point.

9 p.m. to 2 a.m. U-Bahn, 1320 Chestnut St. Tickets: $85 (includes five hours of open bar and hors d'oeuvres) and $129 (VIP including table service, upgraded beverages).
Info: 215-800-1079 or bru.ticketleap.com

Who wouldn't dig lush but nihilistic noise-rock made by Horror Show member Dominic Palermo and produced by Philadelphia's Jeff Zeigler? Nothing rings in 2016 (with doomy bells) featuring bleak local bands Dark Blue and Problems earlier in the evening.

9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Boot & Saddle, 1131 S. Broad St. $15.
Info: 267-639-4528, bootandsaddlephilly.com

The Ghost Tour at Powel House isn't boozy and doesn't last until the wee hours of Jan. 1. Yet, a spooky, romantic candlelighted tour through a haunted Society Hill mansion once owned by the last Philadelphia mayor under British rule and its first following independence sounds chilling, thrilling, and educational for kids, adults, and lovers alike.

Tours start at 7 p.m. with additional tour times added upon request. Powel House's Signers Garden, Fifth and Chestnut Streets. Tickets: $22 (ages 13 and up only, a portion of the proceeds benefit PhilaLandmarks).
Info: 215-413-1997 or ghosttour.net

Philadelphia's competing 2,500-plus capacity live rooms both feature bands based upon and/or playing the music of the Grateful Dead: Dark Star Orchestra will be at the Electric Factory, while Joe Russo's Almost Dead take over the Fillmore. For Jerry Garcia lovers who didn't catch Chicago's Fare Thee Well shows (featuring the Dead and John Mayer back in November), here's a way to hear just how long and strange a trip 2015 has been.

Dark Star Orchestra plays at 9 p.m. at Electric Factory, 421 N. Seventh Street. Tickets: $49.50.
Info: 215-627-1332 or electricfactory.info

Joe Russo's Almost Dead plays at 9 p.m. at the Fillmore, 29 E. Allen St. Tickets: $59.50.
Info: 215-309-0150 or thefillmorephilly.com

Cescaphe Event Group puts its newest acquisition - the gorgeous, historic Water Works property along the riverfront behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art - to good use by cohosting a themed dining/drinking/dancing event, New Year's Eve in Hollywood, that will channel "the elegance of Grace Kelly, the sass of Katharine Hepburn, and the style of Cary Grant." That means High Society and The Philadelphia Story rolled into one celebration.

9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at Water Works, 640 Water Works Dr. Tickets: $190, plus $11.44 fee for premium open bar, culinary stations, passed hors d'oeuvres, valet, and coat check. 
waterworksnye.eventbrite.com