Since 1924, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade has been a principal factor on Thanksgiving Day. The vast and colorful balloons fill the streets of New York City and continue to bring joy upon the citizens of America every year.
Although we think of this event as a well-known and enjoyable Thanksgiving parade in America, originally the parade had very little to do with Thanksgiving at all.
On Nov. 27, 1924, the Macy’s Christmas Parade took off into the streets of New York City. Although today we recognize this parade for its enormous balloons and floats, it was a much simpler parade back in the day. Instead of big colorful balloons, the parade was filled with animals from the Central Park Zoo and Macy’s workers in costumes.
Around the same time the first parade took place, Macy’s had just expanded one of its stores in Manhattan on Herald Square. The company used the parade as a way to celebrate the renovation of this store as well as advertise its products for the Christmas season.
The first Macy’s parade started sharply at 9 a.m. on Thanksgiving Day in 1924. Many Macy’s workers dressed up as cowboys, clowns, kings and queens to participate in the parade and make the magic of the season that much brighter. The parade went 6.5 miles long, all the way from Harlem to the Macy’s store on Herald Square. Even though the distance was long, the time it took was rather short. Spectators were said to have been able to watch the entire parade in a matter of minutes. That year, over 10,000 people went out to watch the parade. The Macy’s committee then decided to have another parade the next year because of the large amount of support.
Although the Macy’s Parade has been very successful each year, there have been some hiccups. During the first Macy’s Parade, the parade was filled with different wild animals from the Central Park Zoo. While spectators enjoyed seeing the cool animals, the animals didn’t feel the same way. Many of the animals could not stay on the path very well and did not like all the cheers and yelling that came from the crowd. Next time there were no wild animals included in the parade. These animals were replaced with huge balloons in 1927 that we now know and love today.
Today, the parade includes many different events from marching band performances, to seeing Santa and his sleigh at the end. The 2023 Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade took around 3.5 hours to complete while the distance of the parade route was only 2.5 miles.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been going on every year since its beginning in 1924. While the route has gotten shorter, the excitement has grown even more. This year the parade started at 8:30am, thirty minutes earlier than ever before. The 2023 parade included over 5,000 performers. There were also 12 marching bands from around the country, multiple performance groups, over 700 clowns, 26 floats and of course 48 giant balloons. Like every year, the parade ends with Santa Claus coming into town to welcome the Christmas season and bring even more joy to all viewers watching.
