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Confetti Ready To Go For New Year's In Times Square

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- The New Year's confetti that blankets Times Square at the start of every year has been put to the test, and is now ready to go airborne.

As WCBS 880's Monica Miller reported, there is a special technique to getting the colorful square pieces of paper to fall just right over Midtown Manhattan.

WCBS 880's Monica Miller Reports

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"We actually fluff, throw, and then it floats down on the crowd below," said Jeffrey Straus, President of Countdown Entertainment.

Straus said the confetti is all made by hand.

"It's approximately 17 million pieces of confetti that will rain down on the crowd," he said.

The confetti is strategically placed to flow with the wind.

"(We) prioritize it in different buildings so that we make sure that at midnight when everybody around the world is watching they see that famous blizzard of multicolored tissue confetti," he said.

Times Square Confetti
Person posts confetti with a 2013 wish. (Credit: The Times Square Alliance)

Soon-to-be spectators, including Andy from the Netherlands, have been writing their wishes for 2013 on the confetti in roughly 50 different languages.

"Simply happiness for my family and friends," he said.

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