Well, 2024 is — thankfully — nearing the end. I’ve never been happier to see a year end. And end it will, and people will celebrate on New Year’s Eve. I guess one of the most famous New Year’s Eve celebrations is watching the ball drop in Times Square. For some reason, New Year’s Eve seems to be the time for people to watch something “drop” and it doesn’t have to be a ball….
All across America there are numerous famous “drops” to celebrate the New year.
In Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the birthplace of PEEPS, they lower a 400-pound chick on New Year’s Eve. It’s part of Bethlehem’s annual PEEPSFEST, a celebration that includes tastings of unique PEEPS flavors, scavenger hunts and other family-friendly activities. They also have a diorama competition where contestants enter tiny scenes made of Peeps.
If you happen to be in Boise, Idaho on New Year’s Eve, you can witness the Potato Drop. Boise’s famous 17-foot glowing potato is the star of their New Year’s Eve celebration.
And it may sound a little cheesy, but in Plymouth, Wisconsin the Sartori Big Cheese Drop ushers in the new year. Probably appropriate for the self-proclaimed Cheese Capital of the World. The Plymouth Fire Department lowers a huge wedge of Sartori BellaVitano Gold Cheese — at 10 pm. So you can have your wine and cheese or champagne early and still toast the new year at midnight.
You probably know that in Pennsylvania, a big Hershey Kiss is dropped in (duh) Hershey, but in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, they have a real live Bologna Drop! Twenty pounds of bologna is attached to a disco ball and lowered by a crane in downtown Lebanon to ring in the new year. After the big drop, the meat (provided by Godshall’s) that is dropped and an additional 130 pounds is donated to people in need (the meat that is dropped is “safely” wrapped.)
One of the best celebrations is in Tallapoosa, Georgia. They lower a possum at midnight as an ode to the town’s nickname, Possum Snout. The possum is stuffed, but it’s still pretty cool. And to make the event family friendly, there’s an an earlier Possum Drop at 9 pm for the little ones.
But it turns out that we live very near a traditional New Year’s Eve celebration that a lot of people don’t know about. We always referred to it as Krumpe’s Donut Drop. If you’ve ever visited us, we’ve probably taken you to Krumpe’s Do-Nuts. It’s in Hagerstown, Maryland — very near where we live. It’s located in an alley in Hagerstown. It really is an alley and fairly recently it was officially named “Do-Nut Alley.” Krumpe’s has been making donuts for more than 80 years. But anyhow, on New Year’s Eve, Krumpe’s passes out donuts to the first 5,000 people to arrive — and — there’s also free hot chocolate and coffee. And the best thing? The “donut drop” begins at 6:59 pm — so you can have your donut and coffee to keep you awake until midnight….
No matter how you plan to celebrate this year’s end, or even if you don’t intend to celebrate at all, Benjamin Franklin left us some good advice and this time of year is a good time to ponder it…”Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.”
— 30 —
We have not been to Krumpe’s sounds very interesting. Probably the only “drop” I could stay awake for! Though the others sound enjoyable.
In Port Clinton, Ohio, the annual New Year’s Eve celebration is the Walleye Drop, where a 600-pound, 20-foot fiberglass fish named Wylie Jr. is dropped from the sky at midnight.