ORANGE COUNTY NEW YEARS EVENTS

If you’re looking for fun and fabulous Orange County New Year events….you’ve come to the right place.  Listed below you will find New Year’s Day and New Year’s Eve events in our fine Orange County cities, that at the time of this posting, are scheduled to ring in the new year with a bang.

HISTORY OF THE TIME SQUARE NEW YEAR’S EVE BALL
Courtesy of https://www.timessquarenyc.org/
“The Official Times Square Website”

Revelers began celebrating New Year’s Eve in Times Square as early as 1904, but it was in 1907 that the New Year’s Eve Ball made its maiden descent from the flagpole atop One Times Square. Seven versions of the Ball have been designed to signal the New Year.

The first New Year’s Eve Ball, made of iron and wood and adorned with one hundred 25-watt light bulbs, was 5 feet in diameter and weighed 700 pounds. It was built by a young immigrant metalworker named Jacob Starr, and for most of the twentieth century the company he founded, sign maker Artkraft Strauss, was responsible for lowering the Ball.

As part of the 1907-1908 festivities, waiters in the fabled “lobster palaces” and other deluxe eateries in hotels surrounding Times Square were supplied with battery-powered top hats emblazoned with the numbers “1908” fashioned of tiny light bulbs. At the stroke of midnight, they all “flipped their lids” and the year on their foreheads lit up in conjunction with the numbers “1908” on the parapet of the Times Tower lighting up to signal the arrival of the new year.

The Ball has been lowered every year since 1907, with the exceptions of 1942 and 1943, when the ceremony was suspended due to the wartime “dimout” of lights in New York City. Nevertheless, the crowds still gathered in Times Square in those years and greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by the ringing of chimes from sound trucks parked at the base of the tower—a harkening-back to the earlier celebrations at Trinity Church, where crowds would gather to “ring out the old, ring in the new.”

In 1920, a 400 pound Ball made entirely of wrought iron replaced the original. In 1955, the iron Ball was replaced with an aluminum Ball weighing a mere 150 pounds. This aluminum Ball remained unchanged until the 1980s, when red light bulbs and the addition of a green stem converted the Ball into an apple for the “I Love New York” marketing campaign from 1981 until 1988. After seven years, the traditional glowing white Ball with white light bulbs and without the green stem returned to brightly light the sky above Times Square. In 1995, the Ball was upgraded with aluminum skin, rhinestones, strobes, and computer controls, but the aluminum Ball was lowered for the last time in 1998.

For Times Square 2000, the millennium celebration at the Crossroads of the World, the New Year’s Eve 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 of the Times Square Ball Drop tradition, Waterford Crystal and Philips Lighting crafted a spectacular new LED crystal Ball. The incandescent and halogen bulbs of the past century were replaced by state-of-the-art Philips Luxeon LED lighting technology that dramatically increased the brightness and color capabilities of the Ball.

The beauty and energy efficiency of the Centennial Ball inspired the building owners of One Times Square to build the permanent Big Ball weighing nearly six tons and twelve feet in diameter. The 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles are illuminated by 32,256 Philips Luxeon LEDs. This Big Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball is now a year-round attraction sparkling above Times Square  in full public view January through December.

ABOUT “TIME-BALLS”

The actual notion of a ball “dropping” to signal the passage of time dates back long before New Year’s Eve was ever celebrated in Times Square. The first “time-ball” was installed atop England’s Royal Observatory at Greenwich in 1833. This ball would drop at one o’clock every afternoon, allowing the captains of nearby ships to precisely set their chronometers (a vital navigational instrument).

Around 150 public time-balls are believed to have been installed around the world after the success at Greenwich, though few survive and still work. The tradition is carried on today in places like the United States Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, where a time-ball descends from a flagpole at noon each day – and of course, once a year in Times Square, where it marks the stroke of midnight not for a few ships’ captains, but for over one billion people watching worldwide.

Check out the Orange County New Years list below.  And if you have one you’d like us to add, please let us know. We at my Local OC hope you have a safe New Years. And the year 2022 brings health, happiness, and prosperity.

 

The Time Square Ball Dropping on 12/31/2002

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
From the Team @ My Local OC

Following is a list of
NEW YEARS EVENTS IN ORANGE COUNTY
*If your favorite isn’t listed, please let us know, and we will add it.

Aliso Viejo   Dec 31   Webb’s Nauti New Years Eve Party   7 Journey   Facebook

Anaheim   Dec. 31    New Year 2025   400 W Disney Way   Website

Buena Park   Dec. 31    New Year’s Eve at Knott’s Berry Farm   8039 Beach Blvd   Website

Costa Mesa   Dec. 31   House of LUMMA: New Year’s Eve    Casa de Onda   1870 Harbor Boulevard #STE 209   Website

Costa Mesa   Dec. 31   The Harp Inn – New Years Eve 2026    130 East 17th St   Website

Dana Point   Dec. 31   New Year’s Eve Dinner in RAYA   One Ritz Carlton Dr   Website   

Fullerton   Dec. 31  New Year’s Eve at Madero   111 N Harbor Blvd   Website

Garden Grove   Dec. 31  Garden Amp New Years Eve   12762 Main St   Website

Huntington Beach   Dec. 31   New Years Eve at Cruisers HB   210 5th Street   Website

Irvine   Dec. 31    New Year’s Eve Around The World   29 Hubble   Website

Irvine   Dec. 31    Hive and Honey New Year’s Eve 2026    7905 Irvine Center Drive   Website

Laguna Beach   Dec 31 – Jan. 1    New Year’s Eve & Day Activities @ Montage Laguna Beach    30801 S Coast Hwy   Website

Laguna Beach   Dec. 31    Ivan’s House Live – New Year’s Eve   422 S Coast Hwy   Website

Laguna Niguel   Dec 31   New Year’s Eve Party!   28971 Golden Lantern   Website

Mission Viejo   Jan 1    Yoga and Meditation   The Hilltop   Website

Newport Beach   Dec. 31    New Year’s Eve Prix Fixe Menu at VIEW   900 Newport Center Drive   Website

Newport Beach   Dec. 31    New Year’s Eve Yacht Party  2431 West Coast Hwy    Website

Newport Beach   Dec. 31   New Years Eve Champagne Dinner at Balboa Bay Resort   1221 West Coast Highway   Website

Newport Beach   Dec. 31    New Year’s Soiree at The Mayor’s Table   3300 Newport Blvd   Website

Orange   Dec. 31    Ring in the New Year EARLY at D&B   20 City Blvd West   Website

Orange   Dec. 31   Ring in the New Year at D&B   20 City Blvd West   Website

Santa Ana   Dec. 31    2026 NYE New Year’s Eve Party @ Yost Theater   307 North Spurgeon Street    Website

Santa Ana   Dec. 31    Wild West New Year’s Eve  – Orange County Mining Co   10000 South Crawford Canyon Rd   Website

Seal Beach   Dec. 31   SOLD OUT New Year’s Eve with Eric Darius   3005 Old Ranch Parkway   Website

**Please note: At the time of this posting reservations are available – but we cannot guarantee future availability.
***Not responsible for errors & omissions

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