CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio — While Times Square has the Waterford Crystal Ball, one Northeast Ohio community drops something less conventional. Chagrin Falls is preparing to usher in 2025 with its annual Popcorn Ball Drop.
“I think it’s going to be epic,” said Jules Holdford. “This year we have popcorn beanies, popcorn earrings, a bag and pins to hand out for people to put on their coat lapel.”
The Baltimore, Maryland, resident traveled to Chagrin Falls specifically to see the massive popcorn ball in person. It will be her sixth such trip to view the country’s most unique New Year’s celebrations.
“It’s my favorite holiday, more than any other holiday of the year. And we love to travel so I’ve started finding theme drops, going on Wikipedia and seeing state by state,” she explained.
The popcorn ball tradition has also piqued the interest of locals.
“I watched them build it for the past few weeks. They’ve been outside of the store putting it together, so that’s been fun every time I go by,” said Shelly Wallens.
The celebration has become an annual project for the Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop. One of the historic town’s oldest buildings, built in 1875, has been home to the Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop for about 75 years.
“The Popcorn Shop - it’s been around here for quite a few years,” said Rob Schwind, one of the co-founders and de-facto engineer for the Popcorn Ball Drop.
He explained the event was inspired by another whimsical New Year’s tradition involving a possum in North Carolina. Schwind gives a nod to that celebration with a stuffed possum toy during the Chagrin Falls event.
“Opie rides up on the Little Kernel to the top of the ball to tell him to come down,” he joked.
He said executing the ball drop has been an engineering feat involving years of trial and error.
“We’ve tried sleds going up and down the side of the pole, we tried going on the side of the pole, hanging off the pole. Now we’re wrapping the pole,” he said.
Recent versions of the ball have been nicknamed ‘Jupiter,’ for their impressive size. This year, the popcorn ball measures 6 feet wide and weighs more than 230 pounds. It’s more than 3.5 times larger than the original popcorn ball.
Over the 13 years of the tradition, the Popcorn Ball Drop has attracted crowds of up to 1,000 people.
“People start coming out of doorways or whatever, just start magically appearing and then the whole street is filled and blocked. It becomes fun,” Schwind said.
In addition to the ball dropping at midnight, the New Year’s Eve celebration features refreshments at the Town Hall, live music, a DJ and hundreds of smaller edible popcorn balls for the crowd.
It’s a quirky tradition that’s become a point of pride for the small town.
“It’s just something that was fun and stupid to do,” Schwind laughed. “We’ve never done it to make money or anything – just a bunch of crazy people doing something on New Year’s.”
Festivities start at 10:30 p.m. at Town Hall. The party will move to the triangle at 11:30 for the ball drop. Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop will stay open until 12:30 a.m. New Year’s Day.
