The Moscow health department has slapped a warning label on New Year's Eve.


But perhaps it can be forgiven, given that Moscow New Year's traditions include not only decorated trees and a lavish feast, but also a frightening number of deaths due to exposure.


So while it's not quite the same as a message from the surgeon general on a pack of cigarettes, the sentiment is just as sincere.


"If you're going to drink, drink at home. And if you're going to get drunk, don't go out in the street," advised Igor Nadezhdin, health department spokesman.


Those stern words come in stark contrast to the usual gusto with which Moscow rings in the New Year. Even Mayor Yury Luzhkov gets involved, not only by celebrating, but by signing orders encouraging elaborate window-dressing and increased production of the two crucial elements of a happy New Year -- vodka and champagne.


After all, Moscow will only tolerate so much sobriety on New Year's Eve. In fact Muscovites will enjoy themselves. Luzhkov has decreed it.


This year, the mayor has ordered the Kornet champagne factory to increase production by 100,000 bottles and has asked the Moscow Champagne Wine Factory to boost its output by a staggering 600,000 bottles, all to ensure that your neighborhood kiosk doesn't run short of happy water at the moment of truth.


But even during the main national holiday, Russia's realities are hard to escape. Since the beginning of November, 248 Muscovites have died he guessed. The experts, however, do not agree. Meteorologists have said this winter will be colder than last while statistics show that alcohol use among Russians is at an all-time high.


The bad news is that no matter how much the numbers drop, they will only drop so far.


"It's the usual situation," Nadezhdin said. "How many years has it been cold in Moscow during the winter? That's how long people have been dying from exposure."


Demand for vodka rises as fast as an ice cube in tonic come New Year's Eve. In the days before Dec. 31, Moscow's Kristall Vodka Factory will sell 20,000 cases -- 400,000 bottles -- a day. And that's only one of the several vodka factories in the area.


Other peaks come in the days before International Women's Day on March 8 and around Victory Day in the spring. Last year, Luzhkov also ordered Kristall to push the production line, but by an unspecified amount. This year, he was more subtle.


"He just asks from time to time," said Kristall commercial director Eduard Kuznetsky. "The mayor takes an interest in this, and we report to him continually."


And, this might be just the time to take advantage of the holiday glut. After the new year, prices on Kristall are going up 4.5 percent, to 13,200 rubles ($2.85) for a half-liter bottle.


Of course, the danger in all this drinking is not necessarily waking up in the morning with someone you don't recognize. It's not waking up at all.


Vodka and other alcoholic beverages give the impression that they are warming you up when they are actually cooling you off. Alcohol causes the blood vessels at the body's surface to open up and release heat. That's why a belt or two at a winter football game seem to hit the spot.


But a bottle or two on a sub-zero night turns the blood vessels under your skin into rivers of refrigerant, releasing all the body's heat when they should be doing just the opposite, according to Dr. Sandeep Mital at the American Medical Center.


It all has to do with complicated terms like vaso-dilation and vaso-constriction, but suffice it to say that by the time you've forgotten which year you're ringing in, it's time to put on another sweater before going home.


Cold presents one problem. Zero-gravity presents its own challenge.


Two Russian cosmonauts and a German astronaut aboard the space station Mir will welcome the New Year with cognac. Though the Russian Space Agency wouldn't say why, champagne misbehaves in space and cognac is easier to drink, the Associated Press reported.


Though the Moscow health department carries the banner of tolerance and sobriety highest in the city, the federal level has not forgotten the capital's well-being.


"Dress warm," said Irina Artazova of the Health Ministry. "And don't fall asleep in the snow."