Macy’s Parade an essential to the Holiday spirit of New Yorkers!

Macy’s 97th Thanksgiving Day Parade with newly added debut Leo the Lizard along with all-time favourite characters like Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants is all set to take the skies above New York City.
The parade starts on Manhattan’s upper west side and makes its way alongside Central Park in front of big crowds and a national television audience before ending up in front of Macy’s flagship store on 34th Street.

The parade will feature 25 balloons, 6 balloonicles, 31 floats, 11 marching bands, 18 performers, 29 clown crews and 7 performance groups.
Among the big names performing is Cher, who just released her first Christmas album. The Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy Award-winner has a prime spot — performing just before the arrival of Santa Claus, which marks the end of the parade.

The First Ever Parade

The inaugural Macy’s Christmas Parade, held on November 24, 1924, captivated an audience of 10,000 spectators. Transforming into the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1927, the event introduced its iconic balloons, marking a new era in the parade’s history. Back in 1924, the festive procession saw Macy’s employees marching towards the flagship Herald Square store on 34th Street. Donning colorful costumes, they celebrated the store’s expansive growth. This event highlighted Macy’s Herald Square as the ‘world’s largest store,’ encompassing an entire city block and boasting over 1 million square feet of retail space.

There were floats, bands, and live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. With an audience of over 250,000 people, the parade was such a success that Macy’s declared it would become an annual event, despite media reports only barely covering the first parade.

Balloons & First Broadcast

1934 was the year when the first Mickey Mouse balloon entered the parade, Popeye’s debut in 1957, Flexi the Cat, Old Man Dragon, and The Inspector, the parade also added sound effects to the balloons, all while the dachshund barked, the pig oinked, and the baby cried.

The parade was and is all about visuals, but in the year 1932, it was broadcast on local radio stations in New York.

1940’s – The Pause & Return in 1950’s

The parade paused for the first time in 1942 for World War II. Macy’s President Jack Straus donated approximately 650 pounds of rubber balloon material to the war effort. In 1945, after the war ended, two million people turned out for the parade.