By Annie Gowen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 31, 2001; Page A01

Tonight, artist Wanda Aikens will be at home in Northeast Washington, welcoming the coming year by lighting a Kwanzaa candle. Michael H. Sicheri, a hotel sales manager in the District, will be at home feting his friends at a small dinner party.

And Frenchye Brewington, a Howard Community College student who had once entertained thoughts of a New Year's in New York, will be going to church.

With the nation at war and times uncertain, many Washington area residents are choosing quieter New Year's Eve celebrations over noisy black-tie parties this year.

"People are looking for a deeper meaning in life," Aikens said. "Things that enrich one's spirit."

Promoters are struggling to fill ballrooms at downtown hotels, despite room rates that are 20 percent to 30 percent lower than they were last year, according to managers and event planners. Mega-churches in Prince George's County are expanding their New Year's Eve services.

At First Night Annapolis -- the annual alcohol-free, arts-oriented family event that typically draws more than 15,000 visitors from 6 p.m. to midnight -- planners have added a "Hall of Vows" where passersby can renew their love for each other under a flower-bedecked arch.

"We felt that people needed a space to profess commitments in times of turmoil," said Elizabeth Melvin, program director for First Night Annapolis.

This being Washington, however, some of those hunkering down at home to wait out the war have apparently decided to do so in style. Several wine and liquor retailers have noticed a spike in sales of premium alcoholic beverages, including bottles of high-end champagne that cost $75 to $200.

"We've seen more people buying expensive champagne than ever before," said Elliott Staren, who owns the Wide World of Wines on Wisconsin Avenue in Northwest Washington. "We've sold three to four times the amount of $100 bottles of champagne that we did last year."

The "Where's Osama?" game seems to have given rise to a merry fatalism not seen since Londoners sang in the subway tunnels during the blitz. Staren's customers are buying such champagnes as the 1989 Krug -- $160 a bottle -- and the 1990 Dom Perignon -- $139 a bottle -- for small, intimate dinner parties at home.

"Most people I know are staying home and having these parties with close friends, and they're just spending more money this year," Staren said. "They're not holding back. . . . They're thinking, 'What are we waiting for? Let's drink the finest now while we can.' "

Fear and uncertainty caused many to choose to ring in the New Year with a whisper rather than a bang.

Nicole Tate, a Gaithersburg nurse, said she just turned 21 and should be out dancing the night away this New Year's. But she's staying home, she said.

"I'm scared something's going to happen," she said. She said she was frightened by the recent discovery of a videotape containing footage of Osama bin Laden that was left behind in a house in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

"This whole 'finding-the-tape' thing? Seems like somebody as smart as him wouldn't just leave a tape behind. Seems funny to me. I don't know. I'm going to stay home," she said.

David Woodring, 24, canceled plans for a raucous night out in the District and instead invited friends over to his Falls Church home to watch the ball drop on television.

"It is really hard to celebrate the coming of the new year while knowing that many of our fellow men and women are over[seas], fighting for our beliefs," Woodring said.

The general economic malaise has also forced others to scale back.

In years past, Chris Massarotto would have spent New Year's Eve partying in Washington. Not this year. Massarotto, 32, of Sterling, who sells cars, said his celebration this year will be "very, very low-key." He will get together with family or friends, perhaps watch a movie or a little television.

"I'm not as much in a mood to party as I've been in other years. Plus, the money is tight," Massarotto said.

Others say the Sept. 11 attacks simply brought into focus what was important: family, friends, loved ones.

"September 11 wouldn't stop me from going out, but in a sense it did make me want to be around my close friends," saidSicheri, 38, director of sales for the St. Gregory Hotel in the District. He's planning to serve pork and sauerkraut -- the traditional "good luck" New Year's dish from his western Pennsylvania boyhood -- at a small dinner party.

Many who are going out are going to church. Pastors of several of the region's largest churches expect capacity crowds at their New Year's Eve services.

"It is so important that as we go into the New Year we seek God, especially when you think of what happened on September 11," said the Rev. Grainger Browning, pastor of the 6,000-member Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington.

Ebenezer has traditionally held large New Year's Eve celebrations, and this year it is one of several churches to add big events for youths. Ebenezer's program will be held at Crossland High School, where about 3,000 young people are expected to enjoy food, activities and a gospel go-go band.

The 14,000-member Jericho City of Praise, the 5,000-member First Baptist Church of Glenarden, and Evangel Church, which has more than 4,000 members, are having major events featuring preaching and music.

"I'm going to church," said Brewington, 23, who said the terrorist attacks have caused her to do some deep thinking. Earlier in the year, she had toyed with the idea of going to New York for New Year's.

That plan has been shelved in favor of spending the time with friends and family at Faith AME Church in Laurel, and praying, she said, "for everybody."

Staff writers Hamil R. Harris, Dana Hedgpeth, Rosalind S. Helderman, Nelson Hernandez, Mary Otto and Valerie Strauss contributed to this report.

© 2001 The Washington Post Company