IT all seems such a long time ago now but how was your new year? Did it pass in a celebratory haze of alcohol with much whooping it up and oohing at the fireworks or did you glide into 2015 via a quiet night in watching the telly or with your nose in a book?

It seems there are no half measures these days. You either do new year full on or off. It’s either an excuse to party or a night spent like any other when you couldn’t care less about the change from the old year to the new.

Whatever your take it’s a time of excess and the arrests of more than 100 people in North Yorkshire over the new year period is a significant testament to that. But it needn’t be like that. I saw in new year with more than 7,000 people and a brilliant time was had by all, with not a single cross word between the police and those making merry.

We were fortunate enough to be in the small town of Chatham on Cape Cod in Massachusetts as guests of close friends, and events there could so easily be adopted and adapted by towns and villages here.

First Night they call it, even though it all begins in daylight. On the stroke of noon on New Year’s Eve all the townsfolk and visitors gather at the town’s Chatham Light landmark, for a group photograph in front of the giant Christmas wreath-adorned lighthouse.

It’s become an annual tradition and each year a local photographer is chosen to record this lodestar event. And within two hours of the picture being taken from a fully extended cherry picker basket, prints are available in local stores.

From the moment the camera shutter clicks churches, school halls and meeting rooms are thrown open as venues for entertainment – here a swing band, there a harmony quintet, round the corner a children’s circus and up the road a dance troupe, plus a whole host more.

People wander from venue to venue, with children riding on shoulders, and the elderly given a supporting arm. A couple of shuttle buses help out, as do a brace of horse-drawn carriages perambulating slowly up and down the main street.

Everyone wears a button badge as a passport to the events, which cost a mere $20 dollars per badge – some £13 or so – to defray costs. And where else will you get such a variety of live entertainment for little more than a tenner?

As daylight fades, people flock to street food stands to fuel themselves against the cold. Come six o’ clock, children are in a state of excitement as they gather under the church clock on the main street in readiness for the much anticipated noise parade.

This is exactly what it says on the tin. The local police chief unleashes the start of the cavalcade clamour with the siren on his police cruiser, and everyone walks down the street making as much noise as they can with horns and hooters, whistles and trumpets. Even pans and wooden spoons make an appearance.

As you can imagine the kids love it, as it’s a brilliant way to let off steam without being told to be quiet...

On the crowds go to the town baseball field for early evening fireworks, making the children feel as much a part of the First Night celebrations as the grown ups.

And once the youngsters are tucked up in bed, content that they’ve been in the thick of the new year fun, their mums and dads toast each other in local bars and then gather on the beach for the midnight countdown.

A giant brilliantly lit metal cod fish made by a local craftsman – what else would it be on Cape Cod? – swings lazily above the crowds before being lowered bit by bit in the final minute of the old year to the accompaniment of everyone counting it down in one voice. It reaches the ground at exactly midnight, the signal for the first bang of a blazingly brilliant fireworks display over the bay that can be seen all over town.

As they do everywhere, every year, strangers hug and kiss and wish each other new year happiness. But what makes First Night here so special is that it’s the coming together of a community in an atmosphere of sharing and goodwill. And there’s not a broken beer bottle or spewing-up reveller in sight.