Maryland celebrates New Year with unique drops

As the doughnut drops, a new year begins

Middletown Valley Bank employees take a selfie with the 6-ft. papier mache doughnut for the Krumpe’s Do-nut Drop 2015 that is on tour and parked outside the bank. It will be lowered in Hagerstown on New Year’s Eve. (Photo: Kim Hairston, Baltimore Sun)

“Giant Do-Nut Drop” the newest of Maryland’s wacky New Year’s traditions.
A duck, a muskrat, a crab and a pastry will descend to greet 2015.
CNN to broadcast 10th annual crab drop in Easton.

By Jonathan Pitts (Baltimore Sun, Dec. 31, 2014)

He was working later than he’d hoped to one New Year’s Eve, and when his boss finally let him go at 11:30 p.m., Pieter Bickford bolted from the office, ready to have some fun.

Then something struck him: In his hometown of Hagerstown, there was nowhere special to go to ring in 2013.

“I found myself thinking, ‘New York drops the ball in Times Square. In Lebanon, Pa., they lower a piece of bologna. Why don’t we have anything?'” he recalls.

On Wednesday night, the town of 39,000 in Washington County serves up an answer for the second straight year. More than 5,000 people are expected to count down in the town square as a giant papier-mache doughnut is lowered four stories into a waiting coffee cup, marking the onset of 2015.

Continue reading “As the doughnut drops, a New year begins” at baltimoresun.com.

Hampden’s Big Baby, Bob Hosier:

Take Off Hoser!: Hampden’s New Year Baby Bob Hosier.

Lest we forget, over on 34th Street in North Baltimore, a disco ball will descend at Midnight to usher in the new year, followed by a Polar Plunge into the chilly night air by Hampden’s Baby New Year, Bob Hosier. Yes, the beloved 57-year-old Hampdenite will once again parade around the block in his signature diaper, bonnet and pacifier (not to mention a can of beer) to mark the moment. Hosier’s been donning his big boy diapers since 1998. (No New Year’s diaper droppings have been spotted during that streak.)

Watch last year’s New Year’s Eve festivities.

Muskrat Love: Princess Anne’s Marshall P. Muskrat:

Stylish Rat-About-Town Marshall P. Muskrat prepares for his New Year’s Eve Midnight descent in Princess Anne, MD. (Don’t worry, PETA, he’s stuffed!)

Of course, Baltimore or Less’s favorite unusual New Year’s Eve creature (non-human) is Marshall P. Muskrat, a stuffed muskrat sporting a black top hat and cloak. Tonight Marshall will be lowered 50 feet down onto Somerset Avenue in Princess Anne to ring in 2015.

According to WPOC16 (www.wpoc.com), the idea for using a muskrat drop came from town residents Dennis Williams and Ben Alder, who wanted to come up with something that would be fun and family friendly in the Somerset county town. The musrat’s name was chosen by students from nearby Greenwood Elementary School. Marshall is also the star of Jeanne du Nord‘s children’s book, Marshall Muskrat and the Chesapeake Pirates.