A four-foot-nine-inch, 400-pound marshmallow chick is poised to descend and ring in the New Year in the small town of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. For many, New Year’s Eve is synonymous with crystal balls and midnight toasts, but in the Lehigh Valley, the future arrives a little earlier and a lot sweeter.

The Magic of PEEPSFEST

PEEPSFEST 2025 represents a fascinating shift in how communities celebrate the passage of time. While the rest of the world looks to Times Square for a glimpse of high-tech glitter, Bethlehem turns to its own industrial heritage, not of steel, but of sugar. This event is a cultural innovation that transforms a mass-produced confection into a localized symbol of community identity.

The “big idea” here is the reimagining of the New Year’s Eve countdown. By scheduling the iconic “Chick Drop” for 5:35 p.m., the event democratizes the celebration, making the excitement of the “midnight moment” accessible to families and children who would otherwise sleep through the turning of the calendar. 

Before the giant chick began its descent, New Year’s Eve was largely an adult-centric affair, often excluding the youngest members of the family. The celebration landscape was binary: stay up until midnight or miss out entirely.

But the history of the star of the show, the PEEP itself, is equally compelling. In the early 20th century, the candy landscape was manually intensive. When Sam Born, a Russian immigrant and candy-making innovator, founded his company, the process was an art form. However, the specific marshmallow chicks we know today were originally hand-squeezed through pastry tubes.

In the days before automation, it took nearly 27 hours to create a single marshmallow chick. It was a world of slow creation, where the delicacy was a rare seasonal treat rather than a ubiquitous icon. The company moved to Bethlehem in 1932, setting the stage for a convergence of candy and industry.

The Chick Drop

The true breakthrough celebrated at PEEPSFEST is technological and cultural. The technological leap occurred when Sam Born’s son, Bob Born, engineered a way to mechanize the marshmallow-forming process in 1953. This innovation slashed production time from 27 hours to just six minutes, allowing the PEEP to become a mass-market phenomenon. The production mastery is what allows a 400-pound replica to hang suspended above the SteelStacks today.

Culturally, the 2025 festival introduces new layers of inclusivity. The event now features a “Sensory-Friendly Space,” acknowledging that the loud, bright nature of traditional celebrations isn’t one-size-fits-all. Furthermore, it extends to the product itself, with attendees receiving a “sneak-Peep” of a new marshmallow flavor slated for 2026.

The event serves as a living laboratory, testing future innovations directly with the people who love them most. The Chick Drop mechanism itself, a massive illuminated sculpture, serves as a beacon of this ingenuity, blending the whimsy of Creation with the scale of industrial engineering.