Where To Celebrate New Year’s Eve 2023 In Metro Atlanta

METRO ATLANTA — The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl and a New Year’s Eve party hosted by longtime Atlanta radio personality Frank Ski top the list of events to help metro Atlanta ring in the new year.

Local family-friendly activities show kids can join in on the holiday fun as some events vow to have festivities for all ages.

Here is a look at some events happening in metro Atlanta:

• The Mercedes-Benz Stadium will host the University of Mississippi Rebels and the Pennsylvania State University Nittany Lions at noon Saturday, Dec. 30, in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl. Event day festivities will kick off with a parade from 8-9:30 a.m. The Lions Club International will host the parade. See the parade route here. The Mercedes-Benz Stadium is located at 1 AMB Drive NW.
• Radio personality Frank Ski, DJ Stormy and Video-DJ Lonnie Luv have been tapped to host NYE in the ATL. The event will be held from 6 p.m.-2 a.m., Dec. 31, at Crowne Plaza Atlanta – Perimeter at Ravinia, 4355 Ashford Dunwoody Road. Tickets are being sold on the event website.
• The Children’s Museum of Atlanta will host the New Year’s Bubble Bash at various times, Dec. 31. Games will be available, and a DJ will be present. The museum is located at 275 Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW.
• Noon Year’s Eve at The Ponce City Roof promises activities for the entire family with the Holidays on the Roof series. Tickets are available for ice skating, access to the Skyline Park and igloos. Food can be purchased. See date and ticket information here.
• The New Year’s Eve Bash presented by Xfinity will be hosted from 6 p.m.-midnight, Dec. 31, at The Plaza at The Battery Atlanta, 755 Battery Avenue SE. Four-time Grammy nominee Brady Rhymer is set to perform. An inflatable balloon drop for children will take place at 8 p.m. while an aerial firework and confetti display over Truist Park will happen at midnight.
• Stone Mountain Park is joining in on the New Year’s fun with the Kids’ Early New Year’s Eve Celebration from noon-9 p.m., Dec. 31, at the park, 1000 Robert E. Lee Blvd. Fireworks will top off the celebration at 9 p.m.
• Chateau Elan has various festivities planned for welcoming 2024 on Dec. 31 in Braselton. Packages include “Marc” the New Year, featuring a five-course dinner at Marc Restaurant, and the Around the World Gala, with various dinner stations and live music. Chateau Elan is located at 100 Rue Charlemagne.

In the United States, one of the most popular New Year’s Eve traditions is the dropping of the giant ball in New York City’s Times Square. Other U.S. cities have adopted iterations of the ball drop — the Chick Drop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and the giant Potato Drop in Boise, Idaho, for example.

The Peach Drop usually marks the start of the new year in Atlanta; however, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens said in early December that the Peach Drop is canceled this year. Underground Atlanta is home to the Peach Drop.

The end of one year and beginning of another is often celebrated with the singing of “Auld Lang Syne,” a Scottish folk song whose title roughly translates to “days gone by,” according to Encyclopedia Britannica and History.com.

The history of New Year’s resolutions dates back 8,000 years to ancient Babylonians, who would make promises to return borrowed objects and pay outstanding debts at the beginning of the new year, in mid-March when they planted their crops.

According to legend, if they kept their word, pagan gods would grant them favor in the coming year. If they broke the promise, they would fall out of God’s favor, according to a history of New Year’s resolutions compiled by North Hampton Community College New Center in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.

Many secular New Year’s resolutions focus on imagining new, improved versions of ourselves.

The failure rate of New Year’s resolutions is about 80 percent, according to U.S. News & World Report. There are myriad reasons, but a big one is they’re made out of remorse — for gaining weight, for example — and aren’t accompanied by a shift in attitude and a plan to meet the stress and discomfort of changing a habit or condition.