ORANGE COUNTY NEW YEARS EVENTS
If you’re looking for fun and fabulous Orange County New Years 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
**Please note: At the time of this posting reservations are available – but we cannot guarantee future availability.
***Not responsible for errors & ommissions
Anaheim Dec. 31 Countdown to 2022 @ STC GardenWalk 400 W Disney Way Website
Anaheim Dec. 31 New Years Eve 2022 1601 S. Anaheim Blvd Website
Anaheim Dec. 31 One Nation Under a Groove New Year’s Eve Celebration 440 S Anaheim Blvd Website
Anaheim Dec. 31 NYE Dinner 1025 E Ball Rd Website
Anaheim Dec. 31 Veteran’s New Year’s Eve Event 24001 Santa Ana Canyon Website
Buena Park Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Party 7115 Beach Blvd Website
Costa Mesa Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve 2022 with James Hype 1875 Newport Blvd #B245 Website
Costa Mesa Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve 2022 : 80s New Wave Edition Dance Party 2968 Randolph Ave #2 Website
Costa Mesa Dec. 31 New Years Eve 2022 130 East 17th St Website
Costa Mesa Dec. 31 New Years Eve @Social Costa Mesa 512 W 19th St Website
Costa Mesa Dec. 31 Strut New Years Eve 2022 Winter Palace Ball 719 West 19th St Website
Costa Mesa Dec. 31 Bling in the New Year 330 East 17th St Website
Costa Mesa Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Around the World at Center Club 650 Town Center Dr Website
Costa Mesa Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Flamenco Dinner Show Experience 1870 Harbor Blvd Website
Dana Point Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve at 33 North 1 Monarch Beach Resort North Website
Fullerton Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve 2022- OC Singles Party – Couples Welcome 114 East Commonwealth Ave Website
Garden Grove Dec. 31 Ring in 2022 in glitz and glam at #NovaOC 12361 Chapman Ave Website
Huntington Beach Dec. 31 2022 OC New Year’s Eve Party – Gatsby’s House 21080 Pacific Coast Hwy Website
Huntington Beach Dec. 31 Back to the 80’s New Year’s Eve Party! 7561 Center Ave #49 Website
Huntington Beach Dec. 31 New Years Eve 2022 Huntington Beach Bar Crawl -All Access Pass to 6+ Venues 300 Pacific Coast Highway Website
Huntington Beach Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve at Treehouse Lounge 21080 California 1 Website
Huntington Beach Dec. 31 Cheers to 2022 at Henry’s 21100 Pacific Coast Highway Website
Irvine Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve In Hive and Honey 7905 Irvine Center Dr Website
Irvine Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Party 17877 Von Karman Ave #110 Website
Irvine Dec. 31 Orange County NYE 2022 Persian Party 18000 Von Karman Ave Website
Irvine Dec. 31 Ring Out The Old, Ring In The New 100 Pulsar Website
La Habra Dec. 31 Happy Noon Year 301 South Euclid St Website
Laguna Beach Dec. 31 Hotel Laguna’s Roaring Return New Year’s Eve Celebration 425 South Coast Highway Website
Laguna Beach Dec. 31 Sueños Laguna Beach New Year Dinner And Midnight Champagne Toast 222 Ocean Ave Website
Laguna Hills Dec. 31 New Years Eve — Swinging 60’s Party — British Rock 25205 La Paz Rd Website
Mission Viejo Dec. 31 MV Elks New Years Eve Masquerade Party 25092 Marguerite Parkway Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 Steamers JAZz At CampusJAX, A New York New Year’s Eve! 3950 Campus Dr Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 End Of The Year Party 3845 Birch St Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Bay View Four Course Wine Dinner 1221 West Coast Highway Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Lighthouse Buffet Dinner 1221 West Coast Highway Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 Topside ‘Til Midnight 3300 Newport Blvd Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 Newport Sharkeez OPEN BAR New Years Eve 114 McFadden Pl Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Yacht Party 2431 West Coast Hwy Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 OC’S BEST NEW YEAR’S EVE 2022 BASH 4647 Macarthur Blvd Website
Newport Beach Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve James Bond Themed Celebration 1221 West Coast Highway Website
Orange Dec. 31 New Years Eve at the Tartan Room 2652 N Tustin St Website
Orange Dec. 31 New Year 2022 Persian Party 100 The City Drive South Website
Orange Dec. 31 Orange, CA- Dave & Buster’s New Year’s Eve 2022- LateNight21+ 20 City Blvd. West Building G Suite 1 Website
Placentia Dec. 31 New Year’s Eve Celebration! 148 Yorba Linda Blvd Website
Santa Ana Dec. 31 2022 OC New Year’s Eve Party @theCopperDoor 225 N Broadway Website
Santa Ana Dec. 31 Lava’s New Year Eve Bash 416 W 4th St Website
Santa Ana Dec. 31 First New Years Eve White Party 3672 S Bristol St Website
Tustin Dec. 31 NYE 2022 at Bar Louie Tustin 2467 Park Ave Website
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