Boston’s First Night New Year’s Eve celebration proved that after 50 years it can still throw a party, with something for everyone including skating performances, parades, dancing, fireworks, concerts, puppet shows, and music.

This year’s relatively mild temperatures in the mid-30s also helped bring the crowds out, with two distinctive themes for the festivities: the 2026 New Year and the upcoming 250th Anniversary of the American Revolution and its emphasis on liberty, equality, and unalienable rights.

For outdoor enthusiasts, The Skating Club of Boston offered two performances in the afternoon at the Boston Common’s Frog Pond, kicking off with its Skating Academy learn-to-skate program featuring young students from Boston, Belmont, Revere, West Roxbury, and Norwood performing as a group. The full program included local, national, and international competitive skaters in individual performances. An enthusiastic crowd of an estimated 1,000 surrounded the pond and perched on the elevated hills nearby.

“Two years ago, we only went to the fireworks at midnight,” said a Cambridge resident standing close to the pond with her friend from Albany. Neither had seen the skaters perform before. “We knew the ice skaters were going to be here. We saw it on Instagram, and I asked, ‘Can we go to the ice-skating?’”

As non-skaters, they said they were impressed by the performance. “I’m not sure we’re going to see anything else. If we need something to do, we’ll come back for the fireworks.”

Three others, Annika, Samantha, and Natasha, stood on a small knoll nearby for a better view of the pond. As recent transplants from California and Alabama, it was their first time attending First Night.

“It’s free, so why not?” said Samantha. “I thought we’d see the ice skaters and if it got too cold, we’d head out.”

Samantha said coming out for the skaters was an easy decision. They confessed that they had planned to go skating on the pond themselves, but the show was on, so they decided to watch instead. Sold on their decision to attend First Night, they planned to check the online program schedule for other events.

For those favoring indoor musical events, two options were particularly popular and meaningful. Trinity Church in Copley Square co-presented with the Handel and Haydn Society and the Museum of African American History, the 12th Annual Emancipation Proclamation Concert. Noting the 1776 founding of the U.S. and Boston’s role in its revolutionary history and the abolition movement, the concert highlighted slave songs, hymns, and spirituals, including “Go Down Moses,” and “Oh Freedom.”

Audience attendance reached the church’s capacity of 1,300.

“We would not arrive at January 1, 1863, without 1776,” said Noelle N. Trent, president and CEO of the Museum of African American History in welcoming the audience to the concert, referring to the date President Abraham Lincoln declared enslaved people free. Trent stated that the words of the Declaration of Independence, “All men are created equal” are powerful, and the people of color had their own ideas about freedom.

“They challenged it. They reimagined it.” She pointed out that the idea of “all men” had to include women. Regi Gibson, Massachusetts poet laureate continued the theme of equal rights in his remarks, quoting from a letter Abigail Adams sent to her husband John Adams, in which she counselled him, “Do not put power into the hands of the husbands.” Gibson said, “Some things are worth laying your body down. Freedom, chief among them.”

The theme of freedom and equality carried over to the First Church of Christ, Scientist organ concert featuring three members of the Boston chapter of the American Guild of Organists, playing the largest pipe organ in the country made up of 13,384 pipes. The program offered music by Robartz, Dupré, Brahams, Barber and others including two women, the French composer Cecile Chaminade and American composer, Florence Price.

Of Chaminade, organist Erica Johnson said, “Queen Victoria asked to have her music played at her funeral.” Chaminade was popular in the U.S. from the late 1890s through her tour of the U.S. in 1908 with women organizing clubs devoted to her music in many states. She still has followers today. “There is a Chaminade Club in Attleboro,” said Johnson.

Organist Richard Clark said that it was good that Price was now receiving the recognition due to her. Clark wrapped up the hour concert saying, “Looking forward toward the New Year ahead…it’s a meditation on freedom.” He finished with a moving rendition of “We Shall Overcome.” A tour of the Christian Science Mother Church in Boston after the concert was offered to all those interested.