New Years at Time Square

The ball has dropped on Times Square 115 times! Every year since 1907 (except for 1942 and 1943 when ceremony was suspended due to WWII dim out lighting restrictions. Crowds still gathered and there was a moment of silence for the fallen.

1 million people gather in Times Square to watch the ball drop and close to 1 billion will watch it worldwide on television. The ball is adorned with 2,688 crystals and lit by 32,256 Philip’s Luxeon LED’s (that is enough to power two household ovens – the rest of Times Square could power 161,000 average US homes)! This year Waterford Crystal brings us The Gift Of Love design, represented by a circle of overlapping hearts. 192 of these triangular crystals are added to the ball this year!

22% of Americans say they fall asleep before midnight!

On December 31st, around 11:59:40 pm, the confetti master (yes, there is such a thing) and his crew of volunteers known as Confetti Dispersal Engineers (seriously, I didn’t make that up) will hand toss 3000 pounds of confetti on the crowds gathered in Times Square.

For the past two decades the confetti master’s name has been Treb Heining, an LA balloon artist who uses 75 teams at 8 different stations to sprinkle the new year with confetti.

He uses exclusively biodegradable confetti, 2” x 2” in all shapes and colors.

The confetti stays in the air for a while due to wind currents, the vortex in Times Square and the heat from the crowd.

Also floating down among the confetti are wishes for the New Year sent from people all over the world. If you’d like to add your wish you can submit it via Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #ConfettiWishes.

According to the NYC Sanitation Department, it takes just 294 sanitation workers to clean up Times Square the next day, using 30 mechanical brooms, 45 trucks and 58 leaf blowers and many regular hand brooms. Among the 50 tons of trash within 1 square mile is confetti, banners, balloons, whistles, noisemakers, cups and more, none of which is recycled. It takes 12-16 hours to have the streets back to normal.

Source: Waste Pro