Blame it on superstition that you just want to be surrounded by happy, beautiful people when the year turns. There’s no shame in that, or owning a feather boa. After all, New Year’s Eve is one occasion that calls for bubbles, costumes, and pyrotechnics all in one breath.

That’s why Las Vegas is top-of-mind. It’s one of those places where you go to celebrate with the celebrated, as if life isn’t redundant enough. Should you end up in Vegas on New Year’s Eve, it won’t hurt knowing whom you’ll potentially run across. Especially that their aura just might rub off of you all year.

To start with, how can there be a holiday that’s hilariously uplifting without there being Paris Hilton? You bet; she’d be in Vegas. America’s newly disengaged is hosting the New Year party at Tao, a club and lounge at The Venetian. This joint has got a 20-foot Buddha; like I said, mind the circumferential aura.

From valley to country, Kid Rock is party-hosting at Jet in The Mirage, which will have been a day old come the 31st. Actually, excuse me for saying ‘country’ because he is DJ-ing hiphop, house, and such in this club from the same people who run Light in Bellagio. Put on something boldy safari if hopping by The Mirage, where Siegfried and Roy might be seen, and impressionist Danny Gans.

Light, which has a sister nighclub in NYC, will likely be flocked by Hollywood A-listers; and so will Body English at Hard Rock. Another is Caesars Palace’s Pure from celebrity owners Celine Dion, Andre Agassi, and Steffi Graf. Dion, if you don’t already know, is all over Caesars, having built her own 4,000-seat Colosseum here, where Elton John also does regular shows, and a specialty shop, for crying out loud.

Unless you’re agoraphobic, the Fremont Street Experience is having Cheap Trick, Gin Blossoms, and The Spin Doctors grace their bash. A crowd of 15,000 is expected to show up, and they can’t be all wrong. Kanye West will be at Aladdin. House of Blues at Mandalay Bay, a known rock n’ roll hangout, will welcome the year with Goo Goo Dolls and get cranky all January with Social Distortion.

If you’re wearing something glittery and sci-fi, head on to Luxor’s RA nightclub or to watch the Blue Man Group. If you’re wearing something that looks like nothing, try MGM Grand’s Tabu Ultra Lounge or La Femme, straight out of the original Crazy Horse stripclub in Paris; Risqu� de Paris at Paris Las Vegas; or burlesque nightclub Tangerine at Treasure Island, where Shannon Elizabeth is hosting the party. For that matter, you can simply hang outside TI and get a free show where barely clad sirens lure the captain and crew of ‘The Bull’ too many times daily.

Here’s the kicker: New York-New York gets up close and horizontal at Coyote Ugly, celebrates the eerily ageless (please, no mention of Gary Coleman!) at George Hamilton’s cigar bar, and best of all, beats every other Vegas club with The Bar at Times Square, where they recreate the New Year’s Eve spectacle every freakin’ night. Only in Vegas, and somebody tell me why.