When does hump day become a whole lot more? Check your calendars immediately if you don't know the answer. For this year's tilt from old year to new, the fulcrum is a Wednesday night, rendering the usual mid-week blues obsolete, thank you very much.

Per New Year's Eve tradition, most area bars and clubs worth their sound systems will be hosting some kind of special celebration.

For those on the lookout for something a little different, there's an array of options in Bloomington-Normal and vicinity, both for adults only and families mainly.

Here are some highlights:

• Twin Cities-based fans of alcohol-free, family-friendly First Night celebrations no longer have the First Night Bloomington-Normal edition of the event as an option. That celebration called it quits after ringing in the new millennium on 12-31-99.

Closest to home is the much more endurable Pontiac First Night fete, celebrating a significant anniversary in '08: it's 20th.

In fact, as the event's sponsors, Pontiac P.R.O.U.D., note, this is one of only three FN events that have survived into the 21st century in Illinois, a state where FNs were all over the map a decade or so ago. It is also the second-oldest FN in Illinois history, as well as the smallest community to host one.

FN central is the downtown Pontiac square, starting at 6 p.m. and climaxing as the bell tolls 12.

In between: 24 performances, including 10 new acts, at 15 locations (three at the Presbyterian Church, two at Central School, two at the First United Methodist Church, two at St. Mary's Church, the City Council Chambers, the Dancenter, the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, the Livingston County War Museum, the Safety Complex Northside and, of course, the courthouse square).

The evening ends with a bang as fireworks explode over Humiston Riverside Park at midnight.

Buttons for admittance to all events are $10 at downtown merchant locations, as well as the P.R.O.U.D. office, 120 W. Howard. The night of the event, they'll be available at any of the designated FN locations.

• Meanwhile, there's also First Night Springfield, for those wanting to get away, but not too far.

At 22 years of age, we can do the math: if Pontiac is the second eldest FN celebration in Illinois, then this must be the record-holder.

Per tradition, the 200-odd events are centered on the Capital City's downtown area at 15 sites.

Despite the "night" part of the title, Springfield's event is more of a First Afternoon-and-Night, with free stuff beginning with a family-oriented fete from 1 to 4 p.m. at Springfield High School Auditorium. At 5 p.m., renowned organist Mark Gifford will perform ($5 at the door; free to button wielders).

The First Night proper runs from 7 p.m. to midnight and features everything from dance to theater to visual arts to music to historical entertainment to comedy to ice sculpting (like we need to see any more ice these days, guys!).

Admission buttons are $10 in advance and $15 at the door. Go to www.springfieldartsco.org/first night for a complete list of button sale locales and other details.

• Also in the family-friendly market, the Children's Discovery Museum in uptown Normal from noon to 3 p.m. plans a "Noon Year's Eve Celebration," with tons o' confetti, activities, hat-making, noise-makers and games like bingo and limbo.

Admission is $2 for museum members and $6 for all others. Children must be accompanied by a paying tall person, by the way.

• At the Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites in Bloomington, they're throwing a "Family Friendly New Year's Eve Celebration" starting at 8:30 p.m. and continuing until you-know-what.

Featured: face painting, a balloon artist, live music, party favors, a balloon drop and more.

Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for children under 12. Call (309) 662-4700 for more info.

• At the East Peoria Festival of Lights in East Peoria, they're throwing their own family-oriented party from 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Festival Building at 2200 E. Washington St.

Admission is free.

And with the early dismissal, there'll still be time for out-of-towners to check out the festival's final night of illuminating displays.

• Also friendly to families will be another event like no other: an old-fashioned square dance, starting at 8 p.m. in Hudson's Town Hall.

Live musicians and professional caller Martha Tyner will be choreographing the movements, which are open to footloose types of all ages.

Admission: free. Call (309) 212-2379 for more inside do-see-dope.

• Instead of shouting yourself silly above the din of inebriated revelers, why not do the same, stone sober (more or less), at one of the two Big Games in town the last day of '08?

At the U.S. Cellular Coliseum, Bloomington PrairieThunder will face off with the Port Huron IceHawks starting at 6:05 p.m.

There's also some hot hoops action going down earlier in the day, starting at 2:05 p.m. in Illinois State University's Redbird Arena, where the 'Birds will take on the University of Evansville.

• Why not ring in '09 on the heels, or peals, of laughter?

Donny B's Funny Bone in Bloomington is bringing in comedian Mark Sweeney for two shows, an early-bird set at 8 p.m., with tickets priced at $10 and $12, and a 10 p.m. show, with prices set at $17 and $20, per the New Year's extras that will be provided.

Sweeney is out of the "Bob & Tom Show" stable of jesters.

At the Mason City Limits club in Mason City, it's another "Bob & Tom" denizen, Dan St. Paul, performing at 7:15 and 9:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 to $17 at (217) 482-5233.

• New Year's Eve theatergoers are being tended to, as ever, by Conklin's Barn II Dinner Theater at Goodfield, where a festive closing night performance of "Perfect Wedding" will usher in '09 in aptly blissful fashion.

Replete with dinner and other accoutrements, the evening package is priced from $40 to $60. Call (309) 965-2545.

Meanwhile, downtown Bloomington's TheatresCool, 403 N. Main St., is filling its space with a potpourri of entertainment, including magician J.B. Lamage and musical performers Jeff Greenberg, David Davenport and Mark Kissinger.

Tickets are $5 for the 7 p.m. show.

And for theatergoers of a less immediate kind, Bloomington's Galaxy 14 Cine is offering a special New Year's Eve package for all of its 9 p.m.-and-later movies that night.