Staying in tonight while thinking maybe you should make the effort and go out? Worried about missing out on the festive celebratory mood? Well, here’s how you can access it from the comfort of your own couch.

250,000 people are expected to turn out to watch the fireworks in London at midnight tonight. If you’re one of the 31 million who will be watching the event on TV, you can ‘participate’ in a novel way by downloading the Vodafone New Year’s Eve fireworks app. This will use your smartphone’s camera and display to give you an ‘augmented reality experience’ at midnight, synchronised with the display on the banks of the River Thames. If you can’t be there, this is the next best thing.

In fact, at a briefing this morning hosted by Vodafone and the Mayor of London’s office who are partnering for this first ever ‘multi-sensory’ fireworks display, it was pointed out that the people watching at home are the main audience for the event – so you don’t even have to feel bad about not being there!

Of course, if you are there and in one of the designated viewing areas, you can put your tongue out to taste the banana confetti that will be released when the yellow fireworks are launched (yellow, banana, get it?). And the orange flavoured bubbles to go with the orange fireworks. Peach snow too. Oh yes, this is going to be a spectacular of seeing, tasting and smelling (keep your nose tuned for the scent of strawberries when the sky turns red ....). 100,000 people will also be given a multi-sensory pack with a ‘scratch ‘n sniff programme, LED wristband and seven kinds of fruit-flavoured sweets that relate to the tastes and smells of the multi-sensory display.

The ‘VodafoneNYE’ app is available from the Apple App Store and Google Play– you can get more information about it at Firsts.com. 'Food artists' Bompas & Parr did all the sensory stuff, ‘flavour technology specialists’ TasteTech and  ‘entertainment special effects experts' Quantum helped create the display, and XYLO made the wristbands that will turn large crowds into pulsating light displays. I include their information as you might want to send them your CV come 2014 – they sound like cool places to work.

In the meantime, whether you’re cosying up on the couch or putting on your hat and coat and coming out to the event, it sounds like it’s going to be a fun night. I’ll be tweeting about it, follow me @bernibeeto keep up to date. Happy New Year!