Every Thanksgiving, Macy’s has its annual Thanksgiving Day Parade. This year will be the 98th year of the parade. It takes place in New York on 34th Street and lasts about three hours, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The parade has been televised on NBC since 1953. For many families, it is a tradition in many families to watch it every Thanksgiving morning.
Attending the parade may be hard for some people due to the fact that more than 3.5 million people attend this parade every year. While 3.5 million people are a lot, even more people are watching from home. 44 million people usually watch the Thanksgiving parade every year. This year there will be a total of 33 floats, 11 marching bands, and 24 performers.
Floats and balloons
There are going to be a bunch of new balloons joining the parade this year. Minnie Mouse is having her first year in the parade this year. Scout Elf, the Elf on the Shelf, along with his arctic fox Noorah are going to be on the parade. There will be a Bronx Zoo float to celebrate the 125th year of the zoo. A Rao’s Homemade float will be there with a Pasta Knight. This knight carries a cheese grater as a shield.
The Spider-Man balloon is returning along with Dora the Explorer and Goku. This will be Dora’s first time back in 15 years!
These balloons will join the normally occurring Paw Patrol, Spongebob, Minions, Pokemon, Bluey, Snoopy, Ronald Mcdonald, and the Pillsbury Doughboy. Many people love these floats and look forward to seeing them every year.
Some of the floats this year will be Sesame Street, Mcdonalds, Snoopy, Winter Wonderland, Palace of Sweets, Geoffrey’s Dazzling Dance Party, and Tom Turkey themes.
Performances
Coco Jones, Chlöe, and Charli D’Amelio are the celebrities Rachel Tandean, a student at Colonia High School (CHS), is excited to see. She thinks they could have brought more rising celebrities such as Rachel Zegler and Kit Connor due to their new show on Broadway “& Juliet”.
Two years ago Paula Abdul sang at the parade and many people liked it. Paula Abdul is a recognizable name and has popular songs that many people know. A lot of the names on the list are not recognizable to many people.
Should you go?
The struggle to attend the parade may not seem worth it to some people. Some people may start camping out around 6:00 a.m. While being at the parade for at least 6 hours, there are no bathrooms on the route. This inspires the idea that people wear diapers to the parade.
Another student at CHS, Johanny Hernandez watched the parade last year from her aunt’s workplace, “Basically, we got there around 7 am and it was still relatively empty behind the barricades so I was in a building my aunt worked at. At 8 am it started filling up but was still kinda empty and more cops started showing up to enforce the barricade. Late 8 or 9 it started getting packed and the parade began but it didn’t reach us yet. Late 9 am or early 10 am we went downstairs and out the door to sit behind a designated area to watch. The people were mainly trying to keep their kids in check because most were messy with their food. Sometimes the people in the parade would stop by the stands to throw glitter, candy, chips, or other goods to hand out.”
