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GREENSBORO - Charles Gomez and his wife, Kate, rang up a half-dozen bottles of champagne at the grocery store Wednesday afternoon.

The couple are originally from New York City - America's New Year's Eve capital - but they've been welcoming the New Year at home since moving to Greensboro four years ago.

"It's cool, we enjoy celebrating with friends at home," said Charles Gomez, 38. "But we do kind of wish there was a big city celebration downtown or something. We'd definitely go to that."

Raleigh and Charlotte welcomed 2009 with First Night - a family friendly, arts-centered New Year's celebration. Smaller cities enjoyed their traditions - Mount Olive drops a pickle at midnight and Brasstown drops a caged opossum. But Greensboro, the state's third-largest city, lacks the kind of citywide celebration held at the Fourth of July or Christmas.

"As far as I know, it's just never been brought up," City Councilman Zach Matheny said. "Typically when a city does something like this, it's the arts or the music communities that start it and then the city partners with them. I think if someone wanted to start something like this and came to the city for a partnership, we would be interested."

Ed Wolverton, CEO of Downtown Greensboro Inc., said a New Year's festival is a good idea - but may be hard to pull off in a holiday season already crowded with established events.

"We tap into volunteers, partnerships and funding pretty heavily for the Festival of Lights," Wolverton said. "By the time New Year's comes around it could be difficult to get people to volunteer on a night like that."

Wolverton said the resurgence of Greensboro's downtown has been great for the city, but it would mean competition for a New Year's Eve celebration. Dozens of bars, clubs and restaurants already hold their own New Year's Eve parties.

"Honestly, I think it's great that Greensboro's night life has gotten to the point you have so many New Year's Eve options," said Chad Corbin, 26. "Five or 10 years ago you would have been sitting in front of your TV watching the ball drop in New York, wishing you could be at a cool party. Now, you have your pick."

Corbin said he and his girlfriend would count down to 2009 at The N Club on Elm Street. But before settling on that, they considered a half-dozen other parties at bars and restaurants throughout Greensboro.

"To me, it's better to have all those options than one big thing," Corbin said. "You could say that instead, the city has something for everyone."

Contact Joe Killian at 373-7023 or joe.killian@news-record.com