Hosting New Year's Eve at Home: What You Need

The Comité Champagne, the trade body for the region, recommends chilling a bottle in an ice bucket half filled with ice and water for 20 to 30 minutes before serving, which brings it to about 46 to 50 degrees. Ice and water together, not ice alone, is what does the work, so the bucket has to be deep enough to take a standing bottle and the slush around it.

This one is 9 inches tall and 9 inches across the top, in hammered stainless steel with a double wall. The double wall is the useful part: the outside stays near room temperature, so it does not bead with condensation and drip onto a wooden sideboard, and the ice inside lasts longer.

One bucket holds one bottle comfortably, two at a squeeze. For a big party, keep the reserve bottles in the refrigerator and rotate them through the bucket, rather than buying three buckets.

The catch. No handles, so it is carried by the rim with a towel, and it is not large enough for more than two bottles.

After midnight there are always half bottles. The Rabbit sealer sits on the neck and twists down, pressing a rubber gasket into the opening, and Rabbit says it holds tight enough to store the bottle on its side without leaking. The maker claims a week or more of freshness. For New Year's Day, the next morning is all that matters.

It fits standard wine bottles as well as champagne, so it earns its drawer space the rest of the year. Buy three or four for a party. They are cheap enough that there is no reason to pour a good bottle down the sink.

The Comité Champagne notes that an open bottle does not keep for long whatever you use. Treat any stopper as a day or two, not a month.

The catch. The maker's week-long freshness claim is generous for sparkling wine; plan to finish it the next day.

A New Year's Eve is eaten standing up, from a plate in one hand while the other holds a glass. That rules out dinner plates. Six inches is the right size: big enough for two or three bites and a napkin, small enough to hold without a wrist ache.

These come from 10 Strawberry Street's catering line, twelve to a box, in plain white ceramic with a narrow rim to catch a sauce. They are listed as microwave, dishwasher and oven safe to 500 degrees, so a batch of warm bites can go out on them straight from the oven.

Plain white is the point. They go under anything, stack neatly in a cupboard for the rest of the year, and serve as bread plates or dessert plates at the next dinner.

The catch. Catering-grade ceramic, not porcelain; it is heavier and plainer than fine china.

Root has made candles in Medina, Ohio, since 1989, and its votives are a beeswax blend with a lead-free cotton wick. The maker rates each one at about 20 hours, which is the useful number: light them at eight and they are still going at breakfast if you forget them, which you should not.

Unscented matters at a party. Food and wine are in the room, and a scented candle on every surface competes with both. Eighteen votives is enough to line a mantel, a sideboard and the bar with a few left over.

They need votive holders, and a votive melts into a liquid pool as it burns, so a holder is not optional. Plain glass holders are inexpensive and are the right look for this.

The catch. Holders are sold separately, and a votive burned without one leaves a puddle of wax.

Zwiesel's Pure line has the squared-off shoulders that make it recognizable across a room. The flute holds about 7.1 ounces and stands close to 10 inches tall, with an effervescent point etched into the bottom of the bowl. That point gives the bubbles somewhere to form, so the glass shows a steady column of fine bead from the base.

The glass is Tritan crystal, made in Germany. Zwiesel's pitch for Tritan is that it is strong enough for restaurant use and the dishwasher, which is what lets a host set out a dozen of these at a party without wincing at every clink.

Two sets of six cost about as much as three sets of the Libbey flutes. Buy these if the party is smaller and more formal, or if you want the glasses to be one of the reasons people remember the night.

The catch. Tall and narrow at nearly 10 inches, they need a top rack with clearance and a steady hand in a crowd.