A perfect celebration combines several key ingredients.

The first is a cause for celebration. An example is New Year’s Eve and New Years.

Other vital ingredients for a great celebration are location, food and drink, entertainment and safety.

With all that in mind, the East Kootenay’s biggest city is the perfect choice for a celebration, whether small and intimate or big and rocking.

Cranbrook has available venues for every size and variety of celebration, from thousands (Western Financial Place) to hundreds (Columbo Lodge, Cranbrook Curling Club, Day’s Inn, Eagle’s Hall, Heritage Inn, Prestige Inn, Royal Alexandra Hall, St. Eugene Resort & Casino) to dozens of bars, lounges and restaurants. Several restaurants also have special meeting or smaller gathering rooms available for rent.

All the venues are centrally located close to accommodations and other traveler amenities, except St. Eugene (which has beautiful accommodations) and Columbo Lodge, which requires consideration of cabs or designated drivers if celebrating leads to more than a couple of drinks.

If you want to bring in the New Year in Cranbrook but wish to do so with your children, please consider the second annual Family First Night being held 6-9 p.m. on Dec. 31 at Western Financial Place.

Hosted by Community Connections Society of Southeast BC, the event is equivalent to a New Year’s Eve celebration but is designed to be family friendly.

Last’s year’s inaugural event was a huge success, selling out all 500 tickets and seeing people of all ages from Cranbrook and surrounding areas participating in the many family friendly activities. The feedback was also very positive and spurred the addition of a few more activities to be added to this year’s event.

This year’s celebration will include open swimming, open skating, face painting, a photo booth, crafts, carnival games, and live entertainment. The new activities to be added this year are live ice sculpture demos, ice slide and horse drawn sleigh rides. There will also be food vendors.

Safire Dance will be one of the headline entertainers at this year’s event, returning again from last year. The Alberta-based circus performer is world renowned and has appeared in 14 different countries around the world and delivers a variety of acts including fire dancing, staff spinning, contact juggling and hoop dancing.

There is also a special countdown celebration during the last part of the evening. This is the event finale and gives families with young children a chance to participate in the excitement of a New Year’s Eve celebration.

Tickets are $5 per person (ages three and under are free) and the maximum cost to any family is only $25. There are special rates for those that hold a Leisure Program Access Card. Tickets can be purchased at Leisure Services in Western Financial Place. This event is provided for residents and their guests to enjoy, for a minimal cost thanks to the generous donations from sponsoring businesses and organizations.

For more information about Family First Night Cranbrook.

If you don’t mind a wee drive, there is another family friendly New Year’s event Dec. 31 just 20 minutes north of Cranbrook at Wasa.

For more on what Cranbrook has to offer, please visit Cranbrook Tourism.

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