If you can’t be in New York for the Big “Apple” to drop on New Year’s Eve or in Mobile for the Moon Pie to descend, then you’re invited to the 5th Annual Peanut Drop in downtown Brundidge.

This year’s Peanut Drop will be at Collier’s on Main for the second year.

Chuck and Moe Caraway, restaurant owners, said Collier’s has a fun night planned with entertainment and New Year’s Eve specials and the crowning moment, the Peanut Drop at the stroke of midnight.

The tradition of the Peanut Drop in Brundidge began in 2012 at Studio 116. The idea originated with studio owners Chris Rich and his wife, Sara Dismukes.

Rich designed and constructed the gold, mirrored peanut that was dropped at midnight from the rooftop of Studio 116 in the town that is “peanut butter proud.”

However, dropping a jar of peanut butter was not a consideration.

“Brundidge had two of the earliest peanut butter mills in the Southeast and is well known for its Peanut Butter Festival,” Rich said. “So, the peanut is a part of the town’s heritage. And, too, the peanut carving at the Tupper Lightfoot Memorial Library is my favorite statue. So, Sara and I thought a peanut drop would be a way to mark the countdown to a new year.”

The couple hosted the city’s first ever-Peanut Drop countdown to the New Year in 2012 with expectations for it to become a New Year’s Eve tradition in Brundidge. But after three years, the tradition was in jeopardy.

Circumstances changed and it seemed the gold peanut would be mothballed.

However, the Caraways had an idea that would continue the tradition of the Peanut Drop, just at a different location – Collier’s on Main, so named because the town was originally known as Collier’s Store.

“Chris and Sara were very generous in loaning ‘the Peanut’ to us last year and we greatly appreciated it,” Caraway said. “The peanut is a part of the history and heritage of Brundidge and, at Collier’s on Main, our interest is in promoting the town’s history and heritage.”

And, because of the generosity of the ‘”founding couple” and in the community spirit of the Caraways, the tradition of the Peanut Drop will continue. Just as the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve 2016 the gold, mirrored Peanut will begin its 50-foot drop and Old Father Time will give way to a New Year.

The Peanut Drop might not rival Atlanta’s Peach Drop or even Mt. Olive North Carolina’s Pickle Drop or Tucson’s Taco Drop or it might even be better, said Dixie Shehane who attended last year’s drop at Collier’s on Main.

“Sure, bigger towns have bigger celebrations but there’s just something special about celebrating the coming of the New Year with people that are your friends and neighbors and who were a part of your life in the old year and will be a part of your life in the New Year,” Shehane said.