With success of the first New Year Gorham – despite a deep freeze – celebration plans are already unwrapping for 2010.

“It will happen again next year,” organizer Virginia Wilder Cross said this week, as she announced plans for a committee meeting of volunteers next month. “The crowd was great.”

A thousand buttons at $5 each, allowing entry into several New Year’s Eve functions in Gorham, were sold this year. And a crowd estimated at between 300 and 500 revelers braved plummeting temperatures at Hannaford’s parking lot for the midnight countdown to 2009.

An illuminated ball, constructed of hula hoops and aluminum foil, dropped from a Gorham fire truck ladder, which extended into the cold sky. Inside a bus, a band, Mel Tukey and the Clam Flat Five, rang in 2009 playing “Auld Lang Syne.” Cross said lips of musicians and valves on instruments would have frozen outside.

Gusting winds, which had earlier blown apart staging for the ceremony, prohibited fireworks.

Ski parkas, scarves, hoods and furry hats helped revelers ward off the artic blast.

“Everyone is bundling up,” said Carol Cleveland of Gorham Recreation Department at the Shaw Gym hosting an old time country western concert.

Early in the evening, Donna Sanborn waited in the warmth at Shaw Gym for one of three buses shuttling revelers to events. “The radio said it was a wind chill of 20 below,” Sanborn said.

The Gorham celebration was non-alcoholic, with hot chocolate, coffee and plenty of food keeping revelers warm. At the Centre of Movement snack stand, Wendy Brown said, “The soup has been doing really well. We knew it was going to be cold.”

Inside the Shaw Gym, Ralph Perry thought crowds would have been bigger without the cold snap.

“I bet it’s down to 10 degrees,” Perry said, as Ed Platts poured him hot chocolate.

Revelers lined up at the Chuck Wagon, a mobile vendor parked on South Street especially for the celebration. “French fries have been good, and hot broccoli soup,” said Sherry Reynolds of Baldwin, opening the wagon window.

As they hustled along village sidewalks between events, few revelers seemed to mind the cold.

“No one is complaining about the temperatures,” said Carson Lynch, owner of The Gorham Grind.

“There’s so many places to go to keep warm,” said Linda Ford at The Gorham Grind. “This has been mobbed.”

Trish Moulton, owner of the Dance Studio of Maine, said the turnout there more than filled chairs for the performance of its dancers, preceding the oldies dance.

“People were sitting on the floor,” Moulton said.

For many, it was a chance to greet friends and neighbors. John Labrecque of North Gorham praised the celebration as a community opportunity to step away from watching TV and playing computer games.

“It’s a great way to get out,” Labrecque said in the foyer at First Parish Church following a choir performance.

At Robie Gym, Ruby Driscoll danced to the music as she and friend Alice Keddy left for another event.

“It’s hard to stand still in here,” Driscoll said, as the Don Roy trio played on.

As midnight drew closer, there was dancing in the Hannaford parking lot, too, with Deb Lovely donning a New Year gnome costume.

“I’m helping to ring in the New Year,” said Lovely in the spirit of celebrating.

Cross is pleased with the success of the first New Year Gorham and there were no police incidents.

“I couldn’t be happier,” she said this week.