(CNN) -- Some Americans will celebrate the arrival of 1999 in a noisy fashion -- the crowd in New York's Times Square, for example, where up to 500,000 people are expected. Others will ring in the new year quietly, at private gatherings or, perhaps, swapping messages in an online chat room.

Here's a sampling of what's going on and what's planned for the hours ahead:

• Many communities, both in the United States and around the world, are hosting "First Night," a family-oriented festival of the performing and visual arts.

• New Year's revelers in Columbus, Ohio, will try to beat the world record for the most people kissing at the same time at one location. Participants must hold the kiss for at least 10 seconds. The current record is 1,420 couples.

• Detroit is among cities nationwide asking citizens not to shoot off guns at midnight. Detroit's campaign is titled 'Ring in the Year with a Bell, Not a Bang,' and calls for ringing bells at midnight. More than 28,000 bells were prepared for distribution across the city.

  Denver police have distributed fliers in English and Spanish to neighborhood organizations, advising them of "No Gunfire Zones."

• Seattle will shoot off fireworks at the Space Needle.

• After four years in the dark, Camden, New Jersey's historic "Nipper" Tower will be relit. The site is the former headquarters of RCA, an electronics company that uses a dog named Nipper as its corporate symbol.

"Virtual confetti" flies in the CNN chat room today as users don party hats and count down to 1999

• A shower of colorful confetti will mark end-of-year trading on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. This year's trading volume is expected to surpass the annual record by more than 20 million contracts.

• In New York, the Arctic Bears take their annual icy plunge into the Hudson River to raise awareness about Parkinson's Disease.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.