The New Year’s Eve confetti in NYC is literally made of people’s hopes and dreams. The Times Square Visitor Center wall is open year round for people to put Post-Its up with their next-year’s wishes. Those wishes are made into confetti, and thousands of dreams flutter across Times Square as the ball drops. Source
They shred the dreams into confetti pre-emptively so you won’t have to worry about the rest of the year doing it to you. Better to have the dreams ruined on the first day.