{"id":2217617,"date":"2025-12-31T10:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2217617"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:55:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T10:55:04","slug":"these-are-some-of-the-wackiest-new-years-eve-drops-in-the-u-s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/these-are-some-of-the-wackiest-new-years-eve-drops-in-the-u-s\/","title":{"rendered":"These are some of the wackiest New Year\u2019s Eve drops in the U.S."},"content":{"rendered":"

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By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press<\/i><\/p>\n

Why let New York City have all the fun with its Times Square ball drop<\/a> on New Year\u2019s Eve?<\/p>\n

Dozens of places across the U.S. will ring in 2026 by dropping a quirky assortment of fruits, vegetables, sea creatures and balls of all shapes and sizes.<\/p>\n

Many have a hometown flair.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s the giant cheese wedge in Plymouth, Wisconsin; a chile pepper in Las Cruces, New Mexico; a pinecone in Flagstaff, Arizona; and a conch shell in Key West, Florida.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania is home to a bonanza of bizarre New Year\u2019s Eve events<\/a> \u2014 the bologna drop in Lebanon, the pickle drop in Dillsburg and the potato chip drop in Lewistown.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Lebanon
The New Year’s Eve celebration in Lebanon, complete with a bologna to drop, Dec. 31, 2005. (PennLive.com\/file)PN<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, drops a wrench<\/a>, a tradition that was in doubt this year.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a New Year\u2019s tradition that goes back to 1907 when a 700-pound ball measuring five feet in diameter debuted in Times Square. Copycat celebrations have surged coast to coast over the past few decades and around the beginning of the new millennium.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a look at some of those events around the nation:<\/p>\n

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\"New
FILE – Gary Seputis, top, and Clint Hornsby, employees of Entertainment Design Group, work on attaching two leaves to the fiberglass and foam Peach in preparation for the 2012 Peach Drop at Underground Atlanta, Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, in Atlanta. ( Jason Getz\/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)AP<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Fruity traditions on New Year\u2019s Eve<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s said in some cultures that eating fruit on New Year\u2019s Eve brings luck and wealth. Perhaps that\u2019s why many cities mix fruit into their celebrations. Miami has its \u201cBig Orange\u201d drop, while Sarasota, Florida, features a pineapple. There are cherry drops in Milwaukie, Oregon, and Traverse City, Michigan. Brightly lit grapes plunge from above in Temecula, California. Atlanta this year is replacing its peach drop with a \u201cdigital drone peach in the sky.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beach balls and flip-flops<\/h2>\n

It\u2019s tough to beat ringing in the year while watching a pair of sparkly flip-flops diving into Folly Beach, South Carolina. In Panama City Beach, Florida, there\u2019s an evening-long bash where 15,000 beach balls are dropped above revelers just hours before a giant beach ball descends a tower at midnight.<\/p>\n

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\"Families
The Peep drop on Dec. 31, 2024, signaled the start of 2025 at SteelStacks in Bethlehem. (Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media, file)Matt Smith | For NJ Advance Media<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

MoonPies and a giant Peep<\/h2>\n

What could be better than seeing a 600-pound MoonPie make a 60-second descent in Mobile, Alabama? How about getting a slice of MoonPie cake at the city\u2019s biggest event of the year? Not sweet enough? Check out the 400-pound yellow Peep chick that drops into Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

Seafood smorgasbord<\/h2>\n

Waterfront cities celebrate the sea on New Year\u2019s Eve. Brunswick, Georgia, has the shrimp drop, while Easton, Maryland, serves up its annual crab drop. The oyster drop is the main event in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The biggest catch might be in Port Clinton, Ohio, along Lake Erie, home to a 600-pound (272-kilogram) walleye named Wylie. The original papier-mache version debuted 30 years ago and has given way to a menacing fiberglass fish.<\/p>\n

\n
\"New
FILE – Sarah Searcy, 4, poses with the ceremonial pickle at the New Year’s Eve Pickle Drop in Mount Olive, N.C., Wednesday night, Dec. 31, 2014. (Casey Mozingo\/The Goldsboro News-Argus via AP, File)AP<\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Potatoes and pierogies<\/h2>\n

There\u2019s definitely a food theme to these New Year\u2019s drops. Just outside Chicago, watch out for a 10-foot (3 meters) pierogi in Whiting, Indiana. The Idaho Potato Drop in Boise has been going for more than a decade, and Mt. Olive, North Carolina, celebrates its hometown pickle brand by dropping a glittery green pickle that\u2019s close to 6 feet long.<\/p>\n

Possum drop lives on<\/h2>\n

All of these events are meant to be fun, boost civic pride and attract tourists. But one created such a stir that it ended up in court. Residents in western North Carolina no longer lower a live possum inside a glass box at midnight, calling off the event in 2019 after years of protests and legal challenges. <\/p>\n

There is still a possum drop in Tallapoosa, Georgia, which was long ago known as Possum Snout. That one, though, stars a stuffed possum named Spencer.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.pennlive.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JOHN SEEWER, The Associated Press Why let New York City have all the fun with its Times Square ball drop on New Year\u2019s Eve? Dozens of places across the U.S. will ring in 2026 by dropping a quirky assortment of fruits, vegetables, sea creatures and balls of all shapes and sizes. Many have a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[428742,428743,428744,322559,428745,361272,428746,428747,22867,428748,428749,428750,428751,311569,348586,345132,340416,428752,26575,350546,42101],"class_list":["post-2217617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-428742","tag-428743","tag-428744","tag-barry","tag-barry-fisher","tag-bologna","tag-bologna-drop","tag-cgk","tag-chris","tag-chris-knight","tag-drop","tag-drop3","tag-drop3-cgk-1231-11346","tag-eve","tag-fisher","tag-holiday","tag-knight","tag-lebanon","tag-new","tag-new-years-eve","tag-years"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2217617"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2217618,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2217617\/revisions\/2217618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2217617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2217617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2217617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}