All over the world today, friends, family, and acquiaintances are gathering together to eat, drink, and celebrate both what was in the past year, and what the new year will bring.

Food, of course, is a big part of that. Putting together appetizers is one thing, but to celebrate the holiday in style, you have to select and put together to best and most festive appetizers.

With that in mind, here are five great appetizers ideas that will help you put on a New Year's Eve party that will have everyone talking long after the ball drops.

Each of these ideas and recipes are provided courtesy of allrecipes.com.

1. Bacon Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Blue Cheese

How do you win over a diverse crowd? Introduce the ultimate crowd pleaser: Bacon.

With these beauties, all you need is a pound of bacon, four ounces of blue cheese, and one pound of pitted dates. Preparation should take an hour, which is a lot of time to devote to an appetizer. So, if you can, you might want to enlist the services of a little brother, sister, or cousin to help prepare these. At least the process is fairly straightforward.

2. Mouth-Watering Stuffed Mushrooms

This recipe may involve more steps than the Bacon Wrapped Dates do, but on the flip side, the total preparation time is significantly shorter at just 45 minutes.

In this case, you don't need a large quantity of any particular ingredient (aside from the mushrooms themselves), but a dash of several different ingredients instead. For instance, you'll need a tablespoon of minced garlic, a tablespoon of vegetable oil, a quarter teaspoon of ground black pepper, and a quarter teaspoon of onion powder, among other things. See what we mean?

Nevertheless, if you have everything you need to put this recipe together, you're sure to generate smiles, along with plenty of "yums" and "mmms" too.

3. Artichoke Hearts Gratin

This recipe is also on the simple side, which is great since we're just hours from the ball dropping.

You can prepare it in just 35 minutes, and prep plus cook time together take just 20 minutes. As for ingredients, you'll need six canned artichoke hearts, drained and canned. On top of that, you'll need vegetable oil, olive oil, and half a lemon, for starters. However, you're also encourged to experiment with different ingredients as well.

Considering that you'll be making these for guests, you might want to stay on the safe side this time around and leave the experiementation to when you're flying solo or with your significant other.

You can also relegate a younger sibling to taste tester duties as well.

What do you think of these New Year's Eve 2015 appetizer ideas? Got any others you would like to share? Sound off in the comments below.