Where are the wackiest New Year's Eve drops in the US?

Why let New York City have all the fun with its Times Square ball drop on New Year’s Eve?

Dozens of places across the U.S. will ring in 2026 by dropping a quirky assortment of fruits, vegetables, sea creatures and balls of all shapes and sizes.

Many have a hometown flair.

There's the giant cheese wedge in Plymouth, Wisconsin, a chile pepper in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a pinecone in Flagstaff, Arizona, and a conch shell in Key West, Florida.

Pennsylvania is home to a bonanza of bizarre New Year’s Eve events — the bologna drop in Lebanon, the pickle drop in Dillsburg and the potato chip drop in Lewistown.

It's a New Year's tradition that goes back to 1907 when a 700-pound (318-kilogram) ball measuring five feet (1.5 meters) in diameter debuted in Times Square. Copycat celebrations have surged coast to coast over the past few decades and around the beginning of the new millennium.

Here's a look at some of those events around the nation:

It's said in some cultures that eating fruit on New Year's Eve brings luck and wealth. Perhaps that's why many cities mix fruit into their celebrations. Miami has its “Big Orange” drop, while Sarasota, Florida, features a pineapple. There are cherry drops in Milwaukie, Oregon, and Traverse City, Michigan. Brightly lit grapes plunge from above in Temecula, California. Atlanta this year is replacing its peach drop with a “digital drone peach in the sky.”

It’s tough to beat ringing in the year while watching a pair of sparkly flip-flops diving into Folly Beach, South Carolina. In Panama City Beach, Florida, there’s an evening-long bash where 15,000 beach balls are dropped above revelers just hours before a giant beach ball descends a tower at midnight.

What could be better than seeing a 600-pound (272 kilograms) MoonPie make a 60-second descent in Mobile, Alabama? How about getting a slice of MoonPie cake at the city's biggest event of the year? Not sweet enough? Check out the 400-pound (181 kilograms) yellow Peep chick that drops into Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Waterfront cities celebrate the sea on New Year's Eve. Brunswick, Georgia, has the shrimp drop, while Easton, Maryland, serves up its annual crab drop. The oyster drop is the main event in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The biggest catch might be in Port Clinton, Ohio, along Lake Erie, home to a 600-pound (272-kilogram) walleye named Wylie. The original papier-mache version debuted 30 years ago and has given way to a menacing fiberglass fish.

There's definitely a food theme to these New Year's drops. Just outside Chicago, watch out for a 10-foot (3 meters) pierogi in Whiting, Indiana. The Idaho Potato Drop in Boise has been going for more than a decade, and Mt. Olive, North Carolina, celebrates its hometown pickle brand by dropping a glittery green pickle that's close to 6 feet (1.8 meters) long.

All of these events are meant to be fun, boost civic pride and attract tourists. But one created such a stir that it ended up in court. Residents in western North Carolina no longer lower a live possum inside a glass box at midnight, calling off the event in 2019 after years of protests and legal challenges. There is still a possum drop in Tallapoosa, Georgia, which was long ago known as Possum Snout. That one, though, stars a stuffed possum named Spencer.

FILE - Entertainment Design Group project manager Gary Seputis stands on the giant peach as he positions himself before he attaches two leaves in preparation for the 2012 Peach Drop at Underground Atlanta Friday, Dec 30, 2011, in Atlanta. ( Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

FILE - Sarah Searcy, 4, poses with the ceremonial pickle at the New Year's Eve Pickle Drop in Mount Olive, N.C., Wednesday night, Dec. 31, 2014. (Casey Mozingo/The Goldsboro News-Argus via AP, File)

FILE - Evalena Worthington, owner of the Schooner Wharf Bar in Key West, practices the "Lowering of the Wench," from the 80-foot mast of the Schooner America 2, in Key West, Fla., Saturday, Dec. 30, 2023. . (Rob O'Neal/The Key West Citizen via AP, File)

FILE - The PEEPS® Chick rings in the new year at the 7th annual PEEPSFEST® at SteelStacks Thursday Dec. 31, 2015 in Bethlehem, Pa. (Jeff Fusco/AP Images for Just Born Quality Confections)

FILE - Gary Seputis, top, and Clint Hornsby, employees of Entertainment Design Group, work on attaching two leaves to the fiberglass and foam Peach in preparation for the 2012 Peach Drop at Underground Atlanta, Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, in Atlanta. ( Jason Getz/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Leaders from Europe and Canada held talks Tuesday on U.S.-led peace efforts to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine, as Moscow and Kyiv sparred over Russian claims, denied by Ukraine, of a mass drone attack on a lakeside residence used by President Vladimir Putin.

The virtual meeting included European leaders as well as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, heads of European institutions and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, according to Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“Peace is on the horizon,” Tusk told a Polish Cabinet meeting. But he added: "It is still far from a 100% certainty.”

It was the first meeting of European leaders since U.S. President Donald Trump hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort on Sunday. Trump insisted that Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever before” to a peace settlement, although he acknowledged that outstanding obstacles could still prevent a deal.

“We are moving the peace process forward," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who attended the talks, said in a post on X. "Transparency and honesty are now required from everyone — including Russia.”

His pointed reference to Russia came after Russian and Ukrainian officials exchanged bitter accusations over Moscow’s allegations that Ukraine attempted to attack the Russian leader’s residence in northwestern Russia with 91 long-range drones almost immediately after Trump’s Sunday talks with Zelenskyy.

The claims and counterclaims threatened to derail peace efforts. “I don’t like it. It’s not good,” Trump said Monday after Putin told him by phone about the alleged attack.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha noted Tuesday that Russia “still hasn’t provided any plausible evidence” to support its allegations.

Moscow won’t do so because “no such attack happened,” he wrote on X.

“Russia has a long record of false claims,” he added, referencing the Kremlin’s denials it intended to attack Ukraine ahead of its Feb. 24, 2022, all-out invasion of its neighbor.

Zelenskyy, speaking Monday, also branded the allegation as “another lie” from Moscow designed to sabotage peace efforts.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov countered Tuesday that the alleged Ukrainian attack is “aimed at thwarting President Trump’s efforts to promote a peaceful resolution” to the war.

Russia and Ukraine have throughout the war exchanged accusations about attacks that cannot be independently verified because of the fighting.

Peskov didn't say whether Moscow would present physical evidence of the attack, such as drone wreckage, saying that such a step would be a matter for Russia’s military. “I don’t think there needs to be any evidence here,” he said.

The rural Novgorod region is home to one of the Russian presidency’s official residences, Dolgie Borody, close to the town of Valdai, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) northwest of Moscow. The area has been used to host a vacation retreat for high-ranking government officials since the Soviet era.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said that since Trump launched a diplomatic push at the start of the year to end the war, “the Kremlin has sought to delay and prolong peace negotiations in order to continue its war undisturbed, prevent the U.S. from imposing measures intended to pressure Russia into meaningful negotiations, and even to extract concessions about bilateral U.S.-Russian relations.”

Davies reported from Leicester, England. Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits attend drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits attend drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)

In this photo provided by Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade press service, recruits attend drills at a training ground in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Andriy Andriyenko/Ukraine's 65th Mechanized Brigade via AP)