It's almost time to say goodbye to 2024 and say hello to 2025.
All eyes will be on Times Square in the heart of New York City as thousands gather to celebrate the start of the new year as the countdown begins and the ball drops.
The famed ball is a dazzling geodesic sphere — weighing almost 6 tons and featuring 2,688 crystal triangles — which will run up and down a 139-foot pole atop the One Times Square skyscraper.
On Tuesday night, 3,000 pounds of brightly colored paper that will fill the air at midnight on New Year’s Eve. Some of those pieces will include wishes written by people ahead of 2025.
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“This is the crossroads of the entire planet right here in New York City,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said earlier Monday as he and law enforcement leaders discussed their plans for security at the celebration. “People tune in at different locations and celebrate as we do the countdown for the New Year.”
A New Year's Eve ball has dropped in Times Square for nearly 120 years, with the exception of 1942 and 1943 when nightly “dimouts” occurred during World War II to protect the city from attacks.
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How to watch the ball drop on New Year's Eve
NBC New York will once again be providing a live stream of the events in Times Square and the ball drop at midnight on the NBC 4 New York streaming channel on your favorite streaming service, on YouTube and in the video player above.
Coverage will run from 6:30 p.m. until 1 a.m.
Fun facts about the New Year's Eve ball drop
To impress your guests, here's some fun facts about the famous New Year's Eve tradition, according to the official Times Square website.
- The ball is 12 feet in diameter and weighs 11,875 pounds.
- It's covered in more than 2,600 crystal triangles, with each sparkling pattern representing a different virtue: love, wisdom, happiness, goodwill, harmony, serenity, kindness, wonder, fortitude and imagination.
- The New Year's Eve ball first fell in 1907, welcoming 1908, though Times Square celebrations began at least three years earlier.
- The first ball was made of iron, wood and lightbulbs.
- The ball was lowered every year since except for 1942 and 1943, during the wartime "dimout" of New York City, a method of defense during World War II.
- "Time-balls" precede the Times Square New Year's Eve tradition. Balls have been "dropped" since at least the 1830s at England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where a ball dropped at a set hour every day for captains to set their navigation tools.
TODAY's Maddie Ellis contributed to this story.
