Site lists quirkiest New Year's Eve drops

NEWTON, Mass., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- A Massachusetts-based Web site said the quirkiest New Year's Eve celebrations in the country include the Sardine and Maple Leaf Drop of Eastport, Maine.

TripAdvisor said the Maine event involves a 30-pound wooden sardine being dropped at 11 p.m. followed by a maple leaf dropped at midnight, while the Possum Drop in Brasstown, N.C., features a live opossum in a Plexiglas box being slowly lowered at midnight before being set free.

The Bologna Drop in Lebanon, Pa., donates a 200-pound bologna to charity after it is lowered via crane at midnight and the Wooden Flea Drop in Eastover, N.C., mocks the city's history of flea troubles by dropping a 30-pound flea to ring in 2012.

Other items being dropped to mark the end of the year Jan. 31 include a drag queen named "Sushi" in Key West, Fla.; a 12-foot, electronic MoonPie in Mobile, Ala.; an 80-pound Styrofoam chunk of cheese in Plymouth, Wis.; a 14-foot pelican in Pensacola, Fla.; and a 18-foot steel and foam watermelon in Vincennes, Ind.

Manhattan, Kan., will ring in the New Year with a Little Apple Drop, a scaled down version of New York's traditional ball drop.

"These ten quirky drops offer an array of unusual ways to ring in the New Year, and will ensure that 2012 gets off with a bang for those who gather to enjoy the unconventional celebrations," said Karen Drake, senior director of communications for TripAdvisor.