New Year's Eve 2012: Georgia Town Drops Possum to Celebrate

People celebrate New Year's Eve in a myriad of ways. Some drink too much. Some gather in places like Times Square to watch the ball drop at midnight. But one small town in Georgia does it like only it can do. For New Year's Eve 2012, the town of Tallapoosa will celebrate like it has in years past -- dropping a dead possum.

The Possum Drop New Year's Eve celebration is an annual event for the west Georgia town. Some 4,000 spectators are expected to turn out for this year's possum drop. It's not like the tens of thousands who watch the ball drop in New York, but it's a big event for Tallapoosa.

Mayor Pete Bridges said the possum drop consists of townspeople lowering a mounted possum to the ground, according to The Associated Press. Herate said the animal is caged as it is lowered and that fireworks follow the big possum drop.

Taxidermist Bud Jones, who cares for Spencer, a mounted Virginia possum that makes the big drop, said the animal was road kill. He said he was going down the road one day and there was old Spencer in the road. So I jumped out and got him. And there he is.