The question really is: Is there an official countdown to New Year's Eve?
Yep, you betcha there is. Check out: http://timessquarenyc.org/nye/nye.html. That's about official as it gets. The site also has lots of other neat facts like that New York first celebrated New Year's Eve in Times Square in 1904.
The inaugural bash commemorated the official opening of the new headquarters of The New York Times. The all-day street festival culminated in a fireworks display set off from the base of the tower, and at midnight, the joyful sounds from a crowd of 200,000 partygoers. The night was a rousing success, but two years later the city banned the fireworks display.
Ultimately the powers to be arranged to have a large, illuminated 700 pound iron and wood ball lowered from the tower flagpole precisely at midnight. And by 1914, New Year's Eve in Times Square was a permanent part of our culture.
During World War II, the glowing Ball was temporarily retired. The crowds who still gathered in Times Square greeted the New Year with a minute of silence followed by chimes ringing out from sound trucks parked nearby.
Today, New Year's Eve in Times Square is a bona fide international phenomenon. Each year, hundreds of thousands of people still gather and wait for hours in the cold for the famous Ball-lowering ceremony. Thanks to satellite technology, a worldwide audience estimated at more than one billion watch one of the world's most symbolic welcomes to the New Year.
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