After the Fireworks: New Year’s Day in Boston

There’s lots more to do in Boston during New Year’s than First Night. Wake up late and spend the “morning after” and have brunch. You just gotta love a restaurant that wear the waitstaff wears pajamas for brunch and encourages its diners to do the same! The Fireplace (1634 Beacon St., Brookline, 617-975-1900)(Map) will be hosting its 5th annual New Year’s Day Pajama Brunch on January 1 from 11AM-4PM. There will be a “Make Your Own Bloody Mary” bar, mimosas and a brunch menu available a la carte with items like lobster egg Benedict ($20) and Challah French toast with apples and cinnamon($12). Another top New Year’s brunch spot?   Upstairs on the Square (91 Winthrop St.,Cambridge 617-864-1933)(Map) always has a festive atmosphere and with two fireplaces it’s a very comfortable place to wile away a winter  morning.  New Year’s Brunch will be offered a la carte from  noon-3 PM in the Monday Club Bar. Order a Bloody Mary and the salmon blinis and you should be set for the day!

Lucky you if you have tickets to the NHL Winter Classic at Fenway Park on New Year’s Day. The rest of us will need to be content watching the game on the big screen. Catch the game at any of  the bars around Fenway or the Garden . Boston Beer Works (112 Canal st., 617-896-2337)(Map) and (61 Brookline Ave., 617-896-BEER)(Map) has outposts at both locations, walls of plasma tv’s and decent pub grub. Inspired? Practice your  own ice moves at Frog Pond (Boston Common, Boston)(Map)  which will have public ice skating on New Year’s from 12PM-5PM.

If you have kids you need to know that  two of the city’s go-to places for families will have a late opening on New Year’s Day. Both the Museum of Science (Science Park,617-723-2500 )(Map) and the New England Aquarium (Central Wharf, 617-973-5200)(Map)  will open on New Year’s Day at Noon.

Is it cold enough for you? Every New Year’s Day is wicked cold  for  the L Street Brownies as they take their annual New Year’s Polar Plunge into the frigid Atlantic waters at  10 AM at Carson Beach(Map) More than 500 people are expected to participate in the dip. You can of course, partake of the activities by just watching!

Image Credit: Greater Boston Convention and Visitor’s Bureau, photo by Susan Cole Kelley