New York’s Countdown to 2023 Begins in Times Square

As 2022 ticks away and we inch ever closer to another Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration, two signs of the impending festivities are making their way to Midtown. You can already make a wish for the new year on the official Times Square confetti and from today you can take a peek at this year’s official “2023” sign. 

First up is this year’s New Year’s Eve Wishing Wall, a public installation on the Times Square Plaza between W43rd and W47th Street, allowing New Yorkers and visitors from around the globe to add their hopes for the year ahead to this year’s official ball drop confetti that will shower the streets at midnight January 1 2023. Interested visitors can add their messages to the confetti every day from 11am to 8pm until December 29, excluding Christmas Day. Every wish collected will be printed and put into the 3,000 pounds of paper released for the extravaganza. 

“The New Year offers people a unique chance to reflect and simultaneously look forward by defining their goals and dreams for a better future,” said Tom Harris, President of the Times Square Alliance in a statement. “Revelers celebrating in Times Square and everyone watching on TV will kick off the new year with hope and joy as they watch confetti fall from the sky, filled with people’s wishes and aspirations for a new year.”

“When the Ball drops and the clock strikes midnight on 2022, we will all watch with amazement as a blizzard of confetti blankets the sky filled with the hopes and dreams of people from around the world” added Jeffrey Straus, President of Countdown Entertainment, who co-organize the New Year’s celebration . “Submitting a confetti wish gives everyone the ability to be part of the magic that happens on New Year’s Eve in Times Square.”

And if you can’t make it to the wall in person, there’s still an opportunity to contribute your wish — The Times Square Alliance are collecting digital messages for confetti distribution through December 28. 

The broadcast’s brightest lights are also heading to the Crossroads of the World — the “2023” sign that will adorn the top of the famous One Times Square building.  After a cross-country tour from Los Angeles to New York, the seven-foot tall signage arrives today to the Times Square Plaza between W46th and W47th Streets and will be available for public photo-ops (sans NYE crowds!!) through noon on Friday December 23. The 602 LED lightbulbs will then be hoisted atop One Times Square in preparation of this year’s broadcast. 

The event will be the largest in-person celebration since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, after last year’s omicron surge sent city officials and organizers into a scramble to scale down the crowds from 58,000 to 15,000. This year, the first-come, first-served audience will be allowed to gather beginning the afternoon of New Year’s Eve for the Midtown broadcast hosted by Ryan Seacrest and featuring musical performances by Duran Duran, New Edition, j-hope, and Jax.