New Year’s Eve never gets old for the ‘confetti king’ of Times Square — he’s still an emotional wreck at midnight after 3 decades on job

One minute before midnight on New Year’s Eve, high above street level, Treb Heining closely monitors a digital clock below the Waterford crystal ball towering over Times Square, and soon the crowd loudly joins together in a final countdown chorus.

“ … 5, 4, 3, 2, 1  …”

By the time fireworks blast off on the hour and “Auld Lang Syne” echoes from 42nd to 59th streets and Sixth to Eighth avenues, “confetti king” Heining has already given a quick radio command — “Go confetti!” — to team leaders in charge of 100-plus volunteers scattered around seven buildings surrounding Times Square. 

As thousands dance and cheer, packed shoulder-to-shoulder at street level, and couples (and perhaps strangers) passionately kiss, Heining joins the volunteers in hoisting huge handfuls of confetti into the air, one bunch after another, after another. The two-inch-square pieces of paper quickly engulf the area in a vibrant, fluttering blizzard, upstaging the ball drop for those on the street below and turning several Midtown blocks into the largest, most colorful snow globe on Earth. 

Now in his third decade of orchestrating the stunning spectacle, Heining — who turns 72 on Jan. 18 — says the experience never gets old.

“Every year on New Year’s at midnight, I cry. It is an emotional, wonderful thing for me every year, you know?” Heining recently told The Post in a video call from his longtime business, Glasshouse Balloon Co. in California.