A Short History of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the most popular parade in the United States. It was started by the department store employees, many of whom were first-generation immigrants. They wanted to celebrate the American holiday with a similar type of festival they used to love in Europe. The Macy employees held Macy's first parade on Thanksgiving Day in 1924. The first year it was called Macy's Christmas Parade. The employees marched from 145^th Street down to 34^th Street and were dressed as clowns, cowboys, knights and sheiks. The entries consisted of were three floats pulled by horses, four professional bands and 25 live animals, including camels, donkeys, elephants and goats. The animals were borrowed from the Central Park Zoo. The tradition of Santa Claus appearing last in the parade continues today. The parade was such a huge success that Macy's made it an annual event.

The year 1927 brought the first big balloons to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. One of the first balloons portrayed Felix the Cat, a popular cartoon character of the day. The balloons replaced the live animals in the parade. These helium-filled marvels originally were released at the end of the parade during the grand finale. When the big balloons were released they had affixed to them a return address label. Anyone returning a balloon would receive a $50 reward. But after the 1932 parade, a barnstorming pilot attempted to capture a balloon and nearly crashed. This near tragedy lead Macy's to discontinue the tradition of releasing the balloons at the parade's end.　

In 1934, Mickey Mouse was introduced as a huge helium balloon and more Walt Disney characters appeared thereafter. During 1942 to 1944 the parade was canceled because of World War II. War time rationing of helium and rubber made balloons unavailable, and Macy's, like the rest of country, did its part in helping the war effort by canceling the parade.

The parade returned in 1945 and was shown on television for the first time. Prior to television, the country listened to the parade on radio. In 1969 creative design teams began building floats for the parade. The floats can stand up to 40 feet tall, and have developed over the years to include amazing 'animation' and complicated designs.

Now the magical Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade kicks off the holiday season in New York City, and, in a way, around the country as well. Estimates place the crowd numbers at more than 2.5 million people lining the streets every year to see giant balloons, floats, marching bands, and waving celebrities. In addition, nearly 45million more people will tune in to the TV broadcast and participate at home in the truly American Holiday tradition.

Sources:

nyctourist.com

macys.com/parade2009/

howstuffworks.com