New York Drops the Ball – have you seen it?

Have you ever visited New York during the holiday season?

I’d love to hear about your experiences!  Please share any photos you have as I’d love to see them.

I have never been to New York but it is on my ‘to do’ list of places to visit.

I would really like to visit over a New Year period as I would like to witness the famous Ball Drop in Times Square.

For those of you that have been, you will know what this is all about (again please share any photos you have with me).  For me, I have only seen and read about it.  Let me share what I have learnt about the history of this event.

People began celebrating New Year’s Eve in Times Square in 1904, but it wasn’t until 1907 that the ‘Ball’ made its first appearance, descending from the flagpole atop One Times Square.

The first New Year’s Eve Ball was made of iron and wood and was covered in one hundred 25-watt light bulbs.  It was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds.

Since its first lowering in 1907, it has only missed two years, these being 1942 and 1943, when the ceremony was suspended due to the wartime ‘dimout’ of lights in New York City, although crowds still gathered in Times Square to see in the New Year.

In 1920, a new Ball was fashioned entirely of wrought iron and weighed 400 pounds.  In 1955, the iron Ball was replaced with an aluminium ones and weighed only 150 pounds and remained until the 1980s.  It was then covered with red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the Ball into the ‘I Love New York’ marketing campaign from 1981 – 1984.

The Ball then returned to its original design adorned with white light bulbs and in 1995 it had an upgrade with an aluminium skin, rhinestones, strobes and computer controls.

For the Millenium celebration of 2000, the Ball was completely redesigned by Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting.  The crystal Ball combined the latest in lighting technology with the most traditional of materials, reminding us of our past as we gazed into the future and the beginning of a new millennium.

In 2007, for the 100th anniversary, Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting created a spectacular LED crystal Ball.  Gone were the halogen bulbs of the past century and in their place were state-of-the-art Philips Luxeon LEDs.

Reading about it makes me want to visit more, and if like me you would like witness this free event then why not combine a stay in New York with a cruise.  

If you are looking at this year or 2019 then you could cruise back from New York to Southampton on the Queen Mary 2, or sail around the Caribbean.

If you would like any more information then please contact me on 0333 300 2803 or email me [email protected].