2. New Year’s Eve confetti contains wishes written by visitors

Wishes written on confetti for the New Year's Eve ball drop
The Times Square New Year’s Eve Wishing Wall

The confetti that rains down after midnight on New Year’s Eve isn’t just regular confetti. These colorful shreds actually have wishes for the coming year from visitors around the world written on them. People can write these wishes either via the virtual Wishing Wall on the Times Square Alliance website or by visiting Times Square Plaza by December 29th and jotting down your wish in person.

All of that confetti makes quite a mess, and cleaning it up is no easy feat. Roughly 3,000 pounds of confetti blanket the streets of Times Square after the New Year’s Eve ball drop. It takes a crew of more than 200 workers equipped with mechanical brooms, backpack blowers, collection trucks, and old-fashioned hand brooms to clean up the mess!