Before you pop the cork on that champagne bottle to ring in the New Year, it's best to be aware of the laws that regulate alcohol consumption in your state.
State laws vary wildly, and in some cases date all the way back to Prohibition.
With a night of revelry looming, FOXNews.com dipped into the legal books and put together a list, in no particular order, of some of the more unusual laws on the books.
1. Not that you particularly care to visit an Emergency Room on New Year's Eve — or any other night, for that matter — but just in case, you should know that it's illegal in Massachusetts to bring alcohol to anyone in a hospital.
2. Feel like hitting the town while hitting the bottle? Many states prohibit drinking in public spaces, like buildings, parks and stadiums. In Pennsylvania, being drunk in public can land you in legal hot water. In Minnesota, it's specifically NOT a crime to be drunk in public — but being drunk is not a legal defense. You can be prosecuted for any crimes you commit while intoxicated.
3. You know those candies you got as a gift this holiday — the ones with the liqueur inside? The ones you may have planned to re-gift? In Massachusetts, you can face a $100 fine if you sell candy that's more than 1 percent alcohol. So nix on the vokda-filled Gummy Bears.
4. Thinking about whipping up a White Russian or a chilly rum-and-Coke? In Indiana you may have problems finding the ingredients all in one place. In that state, its illegal for liquor stores to sell milk or cold soft drinks. But it's perfectly fine to sell un-refrigerated soft drinks.
5. If the tasting of spirits is on the docket tonight, you better make sure your swirl-and-spit plans don't include establishments in Alaska, Georgia, Kansas, Montana, Oklahoma, Utah or Washington. These states prohibit distilled-spirits tastings at off-premise establishments, like package stores.
6. In California, be wary of walking around with large amounts of booze. If you don't have a liquor license, you can be charged for a misdemeanor for having any distilled sprits in containers larger than one gallon.
7. In New Jersey, it's illegal to buy alcoholic beverages at a drive-thru. But a quick Google search shows you can find a convenient Garden State drive-thru near you just the same.
8. In South Carolina, all beers and malt beverages containing not more than 5 percent alcohol by weight "are declared to be nonalcoholic and nonintoxicating." Same holds true for all wines containing not in excess of 21 percent of alcohol by volume.
9. In Oregon and Massachusetts, pharmacists can sell alcoholic beverages without a license to sell alcohol — provided the customer has a prescription. But there are restrictions on the amount of alcohol you can buy. In Massachusetts your prescription limit is one gallon of malt beverages and one quart of other alcoholic beverages in containers of not more than one-quart capacity.
10. If you got busted on Election Day, you probably wish you'd known this: Kentucky, Indiana and South Carolina don't allow the sale of alcohol at restaurants, bars and package stores on Election Day. Utah and West Virginia limit sales to package stores, and in Alaska and Massachusetts you can't buy alcohol to celebrate victory — or bemoan a loss — unless authorized by the government.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox