The Most Famous New Year's Eve Popcorn Ball Drop In the Country will Once Again be in Downtown Chagrin Falls

Named "Miss Sally" This Year After the Event's Founder

CHAGRIN FALLS, Ohio, Dec. 26, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- There are interesting ways small towns have their own version of the New York City ball drop on New Years Eve. Chagrin Falls, Ohio beats them all.

Getting the inspiration from the distasteful Opossum drop in Tallapoosa Georgia, Miss Sally Florkiewicz conceived the idea with Dewey Forward – owner of the Extremely famous Popcorn Shop in Chagrin Falls.

"It is an honor to name the Giant 240 pound Popcorn Ball after Miss Sally," said Dewey Forward. "She was a beloved activist and local supporter of pretty much everything. Miss Sally passed away this year, so we thought how fitting it was to name it after her.

"Sally and I together originally thought about what we could do. We considered other New Year Eve's celebrations: Vincennes, Indiana's 500- pound water mellow drop – too messy; Bethlehem PA's PEEPS Chick drop – wrong season; Plymouth Wisconsin's Big Cheese drop – too smelly; Mechanicsburg Wrench drop – too dangerous; Boise Idaho's Potato Drop – too obvious; Bartlesville OK Olive Martini drop – to alcoholic. So, we settled on the focus of the village – Our Unique Popcorn Shop," said Dewey Forward.

The six foot, 240-pound Miss Sally Popcorn Ball, complete with a red sash is on display in front of the Popcorn Shop in downtown Chagrin Falls until New Year's Eve. It is extra special this year to celebrate the completion of the reconstruction of the historic 150-year-old Main Street Bridge.

The New Year's Eve party at the Village Triangle will begin with music, dancing and Jim Brosious will ignite the historic village cannon at Midnight, and 400 popcorn balls will be launched into the expected crowd of more than 1000.

People will begin to gather around 10:30 p.m. at the Township Hall and then at 11 p.m. at the village triangle. Miss Sally will begin her descent around 11:58 p.m. Prior to the descent we will have hot chocolate, cookies, music and historic local films supplied by the Chagrin History Center.

The back story behind this endeavor has always been the Merry Pranksters, the name taken from the 1960's author, Ken Kesey's group of followers. An average age of 75, this group has put in a labor of love and a gift to the village and a fundraiser for Chagrin Township Hall. 

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SOURCE Chagrin Falls Popcorn Shop