It’s a classic question: What are you doing for New Year’s Eve? In New York City, the options abound. If joining up with the massive crowd in a rainy Times Square isn’t on your list, there are plenty of ways to enjoy a warmer celebration.

If dining is your passion,you can savor special menus and deals all around town. Just find your favorite place and settle in.The mansion setting at Bayards (1 Hanover Square at Pearl Street, 212-514-9454) is the place for a luxurious evening. For $245 a person, Bayards is offering a package that will start with cocktails and a seafood buffet, followed by dinner prepared by chef Eberhard Muller. Menu options will include risotto with white truffles, Dover sole with a choice of sauces, and prime rib roast. After dinner there will be a dessert buffet by pastry chef Eric Bedoucha, open bar until 2 a.m., and a DJ and dancing at 10 p.m. If you’d like to skip dinner, there’s a $95 a person option – beginning at 11 p.m. – that includes appetizer and dessert buffets, an open bar, and dancing.

In the cozy dining room at Fleur de Sel restaurant (5 E. 20th Street, between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, 212-460-9100), chef-owner Cyril Renaud is offering a first seating between 5:45 and 6:45 p.m. The three-course tasting menu (appetizer, entree, and dessert) will be $85 a person.From 8 to 9:30 p.m.,a second seating will feature a five-course tasting menu (with an additional entree and a cheese course) for $135 a person. Menu options for both seatings may include an appetizer of lobster salad with black truffle mayonnaise, a meat course of fennel and pistachio crusted venison loin, and a fish course of sable with sea beans and mushrooms.

For a boisterous party, head over to the restaurant Bond 45 (154 W. 45th Street, 212-869-4545),which is hosting a 1930s-style party to celebrate its one-year anniversary. Diners can choose from a $125 prix fixe menu or the a la carte offerings: Both will include a Prosecco toast at midnight. Among the choices on the prix fixe menu will be lobster and crab meat salad to start, an entree of baby lamb chops, and zabaglione for dessert. A big band will be on hand to entertain the swell crowd, and post-Prohibition cocktails like Manhattans, martinis, and sidecars will be featured.

To catch the energy of Times Square (without braving the elements), one option is a table at Havana Central, the Cuban restaurant in the theater district. The $150 menu will offer five courses, each with multiple choices such as tamales or shrimp empanadas, skirt steak or roast pork with chorizo, sweet plantain or coconut rice, and an assortment of dessert. There will be two seatings: one between 5 and 9 p.m. and a second between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Although champagne is included, the mojitos will be flowing.

The performing arts world offers the opportunity for excellent evenings of dance, music, opera, and more. The Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater will celebrate the New Year with a program including Judith Jamison’s new work “Reminiscin'” and Ailey’s classic “Revelations.” During the rousing finale of “Revelations,” confetti will drop from the City Center dome. The performance will close out the company’s annual engagement at City Center (130 W. 55th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, 212-581-1212). Ticket prices range from $25 to $150.

The offerings at Lincoln Center this year are stellar. The Metropolitan Opera will perform the lively opera “Die Fledermaus” at 7 p.m. (Lincoln Center, 212-263-6000). In keeping with the company’s custom on this holiday, the cast will include special surprise guests. Also onstage will be Broadway’s Bill Irwin in the role of the comic jailer Frosh, Sondra Radvanovsky as Rosalinde, and Bo Skovhus as Eisenstein, with Jacques Lacombe in the pit.Tickets range from $50 to $450.

At Avery Fisher Hall (10 Lincoln Center Plaza, Broadway between 64th and 65th Streets, 212-875-5656), Romanian soprano Angela Gheorghiu will be on hand with the New York Philharmonic to sing beloved arias by Puccini, Verdi, and others. Lorin Maazel will conduct. Ticket prices range from $80 to $235. If you’re looking to kick off the year more quietly or affordably, this performance will be broadcast live on PBS.

The Film Society of Lincoln Center will present lighter entertainment at the Walter Reade Theater (165 W. 65th Street, plaza level, 212-875-5600) with a series of cartoon musicals. On New Year’s Eve there will be two programs.The first, at 6:30 p.m., is titled “The Fleisher Musicals: Singsong and Color.” The program includes the first film that invited the audience to follow along by watching the bouncing ball. Then at 8:30 p.m. several black-and-white cartoons – including Betty Boop and Popeye – from the early 1930s will be shown. Tickets are $10, $5 for children 12 and under, and $6 for Film Society members.

If sitting still just isn’t your thing, there’s much running around to do at the Midnight Run through Central Park. The four-mile race – which you can run wearing any crazy costume you like – starts after fireworks at midnight. Preceding the race is music and dancing at 10 p.m. and a costume parade at 11 p.m. The sponsor of the race, Emerald Nuts, will give out prizes for the most creative costume design and the “Emerald Nuttiest” costume.The festivities start at the Central Park Bandshell, south of the 72nd Street Transverse.To take part in the race, runners must register with New York Road Runners. For more information, visit www.nyrr.org.

No matter how you choose to ring in the new year, try to stay warm and dry: The forecast for Saturday calls for rain and temperatures in the mid-40s. It’s not the most celebratory weather, but nothing can stop a party on New Year’s Eve.