Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade History

Everybody loves a parade, and the one most of us love the most is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, with its iconic giant helium-filled balloons and Santa himself ushering in the holiday season in the greatest city on the planet.

The NYC holiday season would be unthinkable without the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade marchers_nyctravelguru — Photo: Macy’s

The first one was 100 years ago, on Nov. 27, 1924, by the employees of Macy’s in Herald Square.

But 2024 is the 98th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade since the parade skipped two years during World War Two.

Known originally as the Macy’s Christmas Parade, it fulfilled the dual goal of bringing attention to a recent store expansion and celebrating the season.

The 2024 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is is Thursday, November 28, 2024; the start time is 8:30am ET, from the corner of West 77th Street and Central Park West to Macy’s Herald Square.

Today, it’s an important part of NYC’s popular holiday decorations, including the world-famous tree in Rockefeller Center, fabulous window decorations at equally-fabulous department stores, and light-filled festivities across across all five NYC boroughs.

Over the years, the Macy’s parade has been a pioneer in developing ever larger and more fanciful giant balloons floating over the streets.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been an annual event, stopping only for a few years during World War II and taking place even in 2020, in the height of the Pandemic, when the team designed a shorter, smaller parade, with more vehicles and fewer people.

The 2024 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is is Thursday, November 28, 2024

Start time is 8:30am ET, from the corner of West 77th Street and Central Park West to Macy’s Herald Square.

The First Parade: Clowns, Zoo Animals & Santa

The first Parade, on November 27, 1924 featured theatrical elements and live animals from the Central Park Zoo, paving the way for the magic that was to come.

Thousands of people lined up four or five deep to watch what advertisements promised would be “animal circus”. The New York Times reviewed it as “retinue of clowns … animals and floats” accompanying Santa, described as a “bewhiskered man in red.”

Escorting the floats were folks dressed like figures from nursery rhymes, including the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe and Little Miss Muffet.

The original Thanksgiving Day Parade was to celebrate the expansion of the Macy’s Herald Square flagship store, which had opened two decades earlier after 40-plus years along 14th Street.

But it was not Macy’s first effort with holiday festivities. As far back as 1883, the retailer began fashioning window displays, featuring animated scenes to attract passersby, which continues to this day, and now includes many department stores in Midtown Manhattan and beyond.

Until 1945, the parade began in Harlem, at Convent Avenue and West 145th Street, and made its way downtown to Herald Square, a distance of around six miles.

These days, it starts around the the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and the New York Historical Society on Central Park West and 77th St., making the route several miles shorter.

Macy’s photo of 1927 Felix balloon

As popular as Santa is, the signature element of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is undoubtedly the balloons.

They started as “inverted marionettes”—the brainchild of Anthony Frederick Sarg, a puppeteer and animator living in New York City. Initially filled with cold oxygen, the balloons have been inflated with helium since 1928, barring a few years when the gas was in short supply.

The first character to appear was Felix the Cat, originally seen in the 1919 silent film Feline Follies. Felix was a popular figure throughout the 1920s, and instant familiarity is a characteristic that the parade directors still consider relevant today.

Some of that excitement took place in 1937, when there were news reports of a monster sighting off the coast of Nantucket. It turned out to be a creation—and prank—of Sarg’s; he spent his summers there and was creating a stir with a character ballon.

The Nantucket Sea Monster, as it was known, lated showed up as a balloon in the parade.

Meanwhile, Felix retained a prominent role until World War II and was most recently brought back in 2016, has been joined by an assortment of other characters, many familiar from pop culture and some introduced by Macy’s itself.

There have been members of the Peanuts gang, as well as the superheroes Superman, who first appeared in 1940, and Spider-Man and coming back this year.

Dora the Explorer represents the modern cast of introductions to have made multiple appearances. And this doesn’t even begin to approach the depths of the so-called novelty balloons that Macy’s has created, such as Tom Turkey, a balloon-float (or “ballonicle,” according to some) that has been around for decades

Historic image of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade_nyctravelguru — Macy’s photo of 1927 parade

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Alongside the balloons, many celebrities, marching bands and floats frequently return regularly or are reinvented anew.

The Radio City Rockettes, for example, have performed every year since 1958, according to a Macy’s website page. devoted to the parade.

Over the years, such celebrities as Danny Kaye, Dolly Parton, Aretha Franklin and Bad Bunny have participated.

Bands include the New York Police Department Marching Band, which has been a presence for more than 30 years, the Macy’s Great American Marching Band and dozens of rotating high school and university bands from across the country.

And floats. Six of this year’s 22 floats will be making their parade debuts.

As always, there are thousands of volunteers who take part as clowns, balloon handlers and many other roles. Their presence reflects the creativity and spirit of the very first parade, and honors their own histories.

Some are decades-long volunteers, including Macy’s employees, who have passed on that great tradition to their children and, sometimes, grandchildren.

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade turkey float_nyctravelguru — Photo: Macy’s

Fabulous Facts About the Parade

50 million Number of people who watch on TV
3.5 million Estimated number of spectators along the parade route
1958 The year that cranes were used to keep the balloons aloft, due to a national helium shortage
700 Estimated number of clowns scheduled for the 2024 parade (plus 32 balloons and inflatables and 22 floats)
42 Number of times Snoopy has appeared as a balloon
6 Number of miles of the original parade route
2.5 Number of miles the parade route is today

Adapted from an article on the taxpayer-supported official NYC Tourism site.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 25+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.