The Christmas decorations are starting to look tired and the kids are already bored with the toys they received as presents. You know what that means: time to refocus on what to do for New Year's Eve. Of course, it doesn't always have to be a big blowout. Sometimes different is good. Here are some prominent Hongkongers with what they recall as their most memorable Christmas and New Year holidays. My best New Year was definitely 2006. This was my first real holiday as a mother. I had a 13-month-old girl and another baby in my belly. Our whole family of 12 spent Christmas and New Year at the Mandarin Oriental in Chiang Mai. The resort could be compared to a royal hideaway. As the first grandchild, my daughter Quisha was obviously spoiled to the extreme by her grannies and my husband's siblings. It was really rewarding for me as a late-blooming mother to see her having fun feeding elephants, riding on an elephant and a horse carriage with her dad, playing with buffalo and just swimming and lazing around in her cute bikini. Since I was just over three months' pregnant, I received the utmost pampering. I was banned from everything risky and strenuous - those bumpy elephant and horse carriage rides, carrying Quisha, bathing her, and carrying heavy luggage. The best thing was my husband and my father-in-law celebrated their birthdays together for the first time ever (due to a coincidental Chinese calendar). It was an extremely memorable and luxurious family trip where I felt like a queen ... for once. Esther Ma Tin-wai, chief executive of Prestique Marketing New Year is usually a really busy time for artists to attend different music award shows and all kinds of promotional events. I have spent every New Year working since I started my showbiz career seven years ago. However, this year will be a bit different. As I have committed most of the second half of 2009 to making movies and releasing my album earlier on, my workload at the beginning of the year is much lighter than previous years so I can finally chill out a little bit and really spend my first New Year in seven years with my family. So what's my most memorable New Year? I am betting it is going to be this one. Juno Mak Chun-lung, singer Hopefully this New Year will be the most memorable one for me because I am opening a centre for the elderly in January for seniors who live alone. The idea was inspired by my mother, who died four years ago. She had a stroke and fell into a coma and later passed away. Her passing made me realise that I hadn't done a son's duty to care for her when she was alive and I want to do this for other elderly people who do not have children to care for them. Actually, since I don't have any children and am not married, I will likely become a home-alone elder too. I think I will also want other people to care for me and offer me some warmth, especially during a joyful New Year period. Teddy Chen Tak-sum, film director (Bodyguards and Assassins) My boutique takes up a lot of my time so my fondest New Year is the first one I celebrated as a newlywed. My husband and I were just starting our business and really had no time for anything else. At about 8pm on December 31, 1983, we were left with nowhere to go and nothing to do. All our friends made their plans weeks before. We settled for a meal at Pizza Hut and then went for a movie. I think it was called The Day After and it involved the end of the world, which we thought was kind of a macabre way to bring in the New Year. After midnight, we visited my parents for about half an hour and then went for a long peaceful walk on the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront (now the Avenue of the Stars). I remember the heel of my shoe broke so we hobbled home at about 3am. What made that particular night so special was how simple it was and yet how much fun we had. It just goes to show that, really, some of the best things in life are free - or very cheap. Komal Mirchandani, owner of Sanskrit I don't really have any happy New Year stories as I've worked just about every New Year's Eve since my late teens playing in a band. This year I was the MC, DJ and sang at the Ladies Recreation Club. I have a sad memory, however, of the 1992 New Year's Eve. I was at the old Hilton Hotel and conducted the countdown in their ballroom. Shortly after midnight I got in my car and headed on to Queen's Road. Just minutes after leaving the car park the traffic came to a standstill and a while later I heard sirens. Thinking there might be an accident or fire, I turned on the radio and soon heard about the horrific disaster in Lan Kwai Fong. The first report mentioned several injuries and possible deaths and this grew gradually to 21 deaths. New Year's Eve is always a very sentimental time and having this tragedy unfold over the radio, and feeling completely unable to help, made this the worst New Year's Eve in memory. I remember I sat in the car and cried when the deaths numbered over a dozen. Anders Nelsson, broadcaster/musician