NEW YORK (AP) — Workers installed 192 glittering Waterford crystal triangles on Times Square’s New Year’s Eve ball Sunday in preparation for a pandemic-limited celebration that will lack the usual tightly packed crowds of revelers.
The ball is a 12-foot geodesic sphere covered with 2,688 crystal triangles of various sizes. Some new crystals are swapped in every year. This year’s addition features a new “Gift of Happiness” design represented by a sunburst of bright cuts radiating outward.
A worker holds one of the 192 Waterford crystal triangles that will be placed on the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) 
A member of the media films workers installing a panel of Waterford crystal triangles on the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) 
Workers secure a panel of Waterford crystal triangles on the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) 
A worker from Landmark Signs holds one of the 192 Waterford crystal triangles in a sunburst design that will be added to glass triangles already on the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, in New York, in preparation for this year’s pandemic-limited celebration lacking the usual tightly packed crowds of revelers. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) 
Workers install a panel of Waterford crystal triangles on the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, in New York, in preparation for a pandemic-limited celebration. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) 
Workers from Landmark Signs install a panel of Waterford crystal triangles on the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, in New York, in preparation for the New Year’s Eve ball drop. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) 
Workers from Landmark Signs carefully carry a panel of Waterford crystal triangles to place on the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball, behind them, Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020, in New York, in preparation for the New Year’s Eve ball drop. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)
The ball blazing with 32,256 LED lights will be dropped at 11:59 p.m. on New Year’s Eve to ring in 2021. Performances at the event will be designed for TV audiences watching from home.
