For many people, New Year’s Eve means watching the famous ball drop at Times Square to ring in the new year. But if you’re not in the mood for the ball drop, there’s some weirder local alternatives to usher in 2024. Let’s take a look at some of the strangest New Year’s Eve drops out there.

Potato Drop -Boise, Idaho 

While the ball is dropping in New York, Idahoans prefer to celebrate the new year with a more local custom: dropping a giant 400 pound foam potato.

Hosted at the state capitol building in Boise, the Idaho Potato Drop is an annual tradition entering its 11^th year. The potato drop is part of a three day potato-themed festival featuring live music, fundraisers and other events. The festivities leading up to the drop even include Urban Air Exhibition, a ski and snowboarding competition sponsored by Tamarack Resort.

Marshmallow Peep Drop -Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Bethlehem Pennsylvania might be best known for its iconic steel factories and mills. But Pennsylvania is also home to many desert and confectionary companies. On New Year’s Eve, the city of Bethlehem celebrates with a larger-than-life version of the iconic marshmallow peep chick produced by Just Born Quality Confections.

Weighing in at more than 300 pounds and standing at 4 feet and 9 inches, the bright yellow peep is dropped at the culmination of a two-day festival.

Possum Drop -Tallapoosa, Georgia

The Possum Drop is a local Tallapoosa tradition. In the late 1990s, town organizers wanted to create a New Year's Eve event inspired by the town’s original Native American name of Possum Snout. Organizers eventually settled on Spencer, a taxidermied opossum, to be the centerpiece of their celebration. Tallapoosa residents named him Spencer after Ralph Spencer, one of the town's founding businessmen.

Surprisingly, Tallapoosa’s New Year's Eve tradition is one of the most popular events in west Georgia, with annual attendance growing from under 100 people to over 7,000 — more than twice the population of the town.

Walleye Drop -Port Clinton, Ohio

The town of Port Clinton, Ohio celebrates New Year’s Eve with the official dropping of a large sculpture of a walleye. Located on Lake Erie, the town is known as a destination spot for great fishing. To commemorate the town’s status, local organizers established the tradition of dropping Wylie the Walleye, an enormous sculpture of a walleye fish clocking in at over 12 feet long. The town also celebrates the lead up to the official drop with a variety of events like food trucks, live music, and games.