Dropping the ball, and the pickle and the cheese on New Year’s Eve

When it comes to New Year’s Eve celebrations, very few places are dropping the ball these days. Instead, they are dropping wenches, wrenches, pickles, potatoes and bologna—and that’s no bologna.

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Pennsylvania may reign supreme when it comes to dropping things on New Year’s Eve. There are more than a dozen drops around the Keystone State, ranging from a button in Carlisle to a sled in Duncannon to the aforementioned wrench in Mechanicsburg (naturally).

The New Year’s Eve bologna drop in Lebanon, PA is a bunch of bologna | Photo courtesy of Lebanon

But certainly, Lebanon’s Bologna Drop takes the cake as a must-see New Year’s Eve event. You never sau-sage a thing as a 250-pound lunch meat plunging 16 feet to the excitement of adoring peeps.

Speaking of PEEPS, the marshmallow concoction is usually associated with Easter. But in Bethlehem, PA, where the treats are made, the drop of a 4.5-foot tall, 85-pound illuminated PEEP chick makes New Year’s Eve egg-stra special.

What’s the dill with pickle drops? While it’s a “no-briner” that Dillsburg, PA drops a six-foot Mr. Pickle, why is a place called Mt. Olive celebrating with a cucumber? It turns out the North Carolina burg is home to the largest independent pickle company in the country. But an unanswered pickle is why Mt. Olive opts to drop its three-foot cuke down a flagpole at midnight Greenwich Mean Time (7pm EST).

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Meanwhile, Mobile, Alabama takes a shine to MoonPies on New Year’s Eve. A 350-pound facsimile of the popular Southern treat descends 34 stories, marking a sweet start to the New Year.

We wish you a happy bleu year! | Photo courtesy of Plymouth Arts Center

Dairy gets its due on New Year’s Eve in Wisconsin. In Plymouth, the former home of the National Cheese Exchange, a giant cheese wedge gets lowered from a 100-foot crane. But come early. The cheese roars at 10pm. Sounds gouda to us.

Idaho getting mashed… I mean smashed for the new year | Photo courtesy of Boise, Idaho

Famous Potatoes, indeed. On New Year’s Eve, Boise, Idaho’s most notable spud is a luminous 16-foot tuber known as the Glowtato. Here’s the dirt: Thousands of spectators take to the streets to watch the s’mashing potato plummet in front of the State Capitol at midnight.

Female impersonator Gary Marion, known as Sushi, hangs in a giant replica of a woman’s high heel shoe in Key West, Fla. | Photo courtesy of (Rob O’Neal/Florida Keys News Bureau/HO)

In Key West, Sushi gets dropped on December 31…but she’s actually a drag queen and not a piece of raw fish. Sushi sits in a giant red stiletto that goes down at midnight. But plenty of actual sea creatures are celebrated along the Eastern seaboard on New Year’s Eve. Key West also drops a conch (and a wench, but that’s off-topic). Easton, Maryland lowers a crab. And in Eastport, Maine, the country’s easternmost city, they drop a sardine. An hour before the sardine goes down, a maple leaf falls in Eastport, sweetly celebrating the city’s neighbor just across the border. Why 11pm EST? Because it’s midnight up in Canada. O.

Tagged: Florida