Beach balls and giant cheese: Unique ways Wisconsin is ringing in the New Year

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) — Traditions continue across Wisconsin to ring in the new year, and with unique events planned all day, there's something for everybody who wants to celebrate Tuesday.

If you don't want to stay up until midnight, you can celebrate the new year 12 hours early in Milwaukee.

The Betty Brinn Children's Museum is hosting their annual "New Year's Eve at Noon" party.

"It's an event that allows families to celebrate the start of the new year at a time that's good for everybody, including the youngest kiddos," said marketing director Nicole Orlando.

The museum has held kid-focused New Year's Eve events for more than 20 years.

This year is a summer theme, complete with a beach ball drop at 12 p.m.

"DJ Shawna's going to be here at 11 for our beach ball dance bash, and then at noon she'll count us down, we'll drop our big beach ball," Orlando said. "We'll have beach balls for the kids to play with, and then we'll have a big confetti toss."

Click here to learn more about Betty Brinn's New Year's Eve at Noon.

After dark, Deer District's plaza is "Cheer District," And their New Year's Eve fireworks show starts at 8 p.m. after a Harlem Globetrotters show at Fiserv Forum.

"You can stand here in the plaza shortly after the Harlem Globetrotters get out, and have a great view of some beautiful fireworks to kick off the new year the right way," said Michael Belot, senior vice president of the Milwaukee Bucks.

Anyone can stop by to watch the free fireworks display, which will be shot off north of The Trade Hotel for the second year in a row.

"We'd like this to be the annual tradition here at Deer District, to always have New Year's Eve fireworks," Belot said.

Click here to learn more about Milwaukee's fireworks at Cheer District.

An hour north, Plymouth, known as the "Cheese Capital of the World," is hosting their 18th annual Big Cheese Drop.

The party starts at 8:30 p.m. at the Plymouth Arts Center with live music and free cheese.

"We usually get three, four hundred people out here before the cheese drop. Now at the cheese drop time, it can go up to a thousand," said Gregory Heberlein, a cheese drop organizer.

The Plymouth Fire Department will drop the 8 ft.-long, 4-ft. tall aluminum cheese wedge at 10 p.m., honoring the spirit of Wisconsin.

"Having something that's unique, like a cheese drop, instead of a red ball or a lighted ball, it just makes New Year's a lot of fun," Heberlein said.

Click here to learn more about the Big Cheese Drop.