NEW YORK, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- The Times Square ball drop began in 1906, two years after the block's first New Year's Eve celebration, as a response to New York City banning the previously-used fireworks. The ball drop inspired a number of ball drops across the country, but also gave inspiration to notably less-venerated imitators, such as the Crab Drop, the giant Hershey's Kiss, the 500-pound watermelon, the Possum Drop and an 80-pound decorated cheese wedge.
It's official. NYE on the East Coast...and most likely in Easton. The crab drop awaits. pic.twitter.com/d0jA9MGkol
— Beth Rabenstine (@brabenstine) December 10, 2013The Crab Drop of Easton, Md., which will be one of several celebrations covered live by CNN this year, features a 6-foot-wide crab sculpture being lowered to the ground at midnight as part of First Night Talbot, an annual family-friendly celebration in the city.
The crab will be lowered first at 9 p.m. as a preliminary celebration for those who will not be able to stay awake until midnight, organizers said.
#Gallagher moments before the watermelon drop in Vincennes, IN. Bad news though...the #gopro didn't make it. pic.twitter.com/dJtAuMu7P5
— Chris Turner (@Shoegazr13) January 1, 2014Vincennes, Ind., is home to the lowering of a 500-pound steel-and-foam watermelon that, at midnight, releases a load of 15 locally-grown melons to a "splatform" below.
Organizers said this year's melon drop will be more family-friendly than last year's, which saw watermelon-smashing comedian Gallagher raise controversy with some sexual comments about Sarah Palin, the former Republican governor of Alaska.
@timessquareball possible competition? possum drop in north carolina! #BallDrop pic.twitter.com/4FYyav8rCu
— Eddie Temistokle (@eddietemistokle) December 13, 2013The Possum Drop at Clay's Corner store in Brasstown, N.C., is entering its 21st year, but organizer Clay Logan said this year's event will not feature the usual live opossum being lowered in a box.
Logan said he is holding off on using live opossums until he can resolve a lawsuit brought by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. He said this year's event will go forward as planned, but the live opossum will be replaced with a toy, a roadkill opossum or another stand-in deemed worthy of the Possum Drop.
NYE Party at the Plymouth Arts Center. Live music and the Big Cheese Drop at midnight! Doors open at 8:30pm-12:30am pic.twitter.com/tnd8HEAvWN
— Plymouth Arts Center (@PlymArts) December 18, 2014Another celebration that's sure to raise a stink is the Big Cheese Drop of Plymouth, Wis. The annual event features a 50-pound wedge of cheese donated by the Sartori Company being decorated festively and lowered from a fire truck ladder at midnight.
Organizers said the annual drop usually draws about 500 people.
In West Fairview, they're starting a new tradition to celebrate their bicentennial by dropping this giant nail on NYE pic.twitter.com/NjmSE7EqBu
— Jesse Knutson (@JesseKnutsonCBS) December 30, 2014Meanwhile, West Fairview, Pa., will hammer in the New Year with the lowering of a giant replica nail measuring seven feet tall and weighing about 50 pounds.
The nail celebrates the 200th anniversary of the town and pays homage to its history as the former home of the Harrisburg Nail Works factory.
would I be afraid to be in Hershey, PA at midnight when they drop the 300-lb kiss? Well, excited and scared pic.twitter.com/lATHuzFqIV
— Kit Reed (@TheRealKitReed) December 31, 2013Elsewhere in Pennsylvania, the town of Hershey is hosting the sweetest celebration of all by paying homage to its namesake and dropping a 7-foot-tall Hershey's Kiss a distance of three stories.
The Hershey's Kiss, actually constructed from an aluminum frame, wire mesh, fiberglass resin and 500 linear feet of aluminum foil, will be strung up Wednesday from the Hershey Press Building in advance of its midnight lowering.
