If there's a lull in the conversation tonight, you can impress your family and friends with these New Year's facts: 

• According to statistics from the National Insurance Crime Bureau, more vehicles are stolen on New Year's Day than on any other holiday throughout the year.

• Why should you ring in the New Year with family and friends? It is thought that the first visitors you see after ringing in the New Year will bring you good or bad luck, depending on whether they are friends or enemies.

• The Time Square New Year's Eve Ball came about as a result of a ban on fireworks. The first ball, in 1907, was an illuminated 700-pound iron and wood ball adorned with one hundred 25-watt lightbulbs. Today, the round ball designed by Waterford Crystal weighs 11,875-pounds, is 12 feet in diameter and is bedazzled with 2,668 Waterford crystals.

• Due to wartime restrictions , the New Year's Eve ball was not lowered in 1942 and 1943.

• Did you know that throughout the year, visitors to Times Square in New York City write their New Year's wishes on pieces of official Times Square New Year's Eve confetti? At the end of the year, the wishes are collected and added to the ton of confetti that showers the crowd. 

• The top three destinations in the United States to ring in the New Year? Las Vegas, Disney World and New York City.

• Eating black-eyed peas, ham or cabbage on New Year's are thought to bring prosperity. But stay away from bad luck foods like lobsters, because they move backwards, and chicken, because they scratch in reverse. Eat these and you could suffer a reversal of fortune.

• According to this survey, 40 to 45 percent of American adults make one or more resolutions each year -- topping the list are losing weight, exercising, quitting smoking and managing money better. By the second week of January, 25 percent of people have abandoned their resolutions.

• In Italy, people wear red underwear on New Year's Day as a symbol of good luck for the upcoming year.