Thanksgiving and the Macy’s Day Parade: A Family Tradition

How many of you will be watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tomorrow? It is a tradition in our home to watch it every year. I would love to be able to go to it one year but we will be enjoying it from the comfort of home. This tradition is one that my father started when us kids were young. In fact, I can remember watching it at my grandparents house when we were there for Thanksgiving. It is one of my fondest memories of my dad. He loved the parade and it singled the start of the holiday season for us. We always decorated our tree that night. 

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has always intrigued me. Did you know that the first parade was held in 1924 and was in New Jersey? It was later transferred to New York by Macy’s. The employees would march to the 34th street Macy’s flagship store in costumes.  In fact,  the movie Miracle on 34th Street features footage of the actual parade in 1946. I think it is because of the parade that is one of my favorite holiday movies. 

For the kids it is all about the balloons. They love watching all their favorite characters as they make their way down the street. The balloons are in two classes. One of which is the novelty balloons that are smaller. Those are handled by 1 to 30 people. The ones that are handled by one person are typically shaped like human heads that the handler wears on their own head. 

The other class is the full size balloons that required 90 people to handle them. These are mostly the licensed pop-culture characters. Isn’t that crazy that it takes 90 people? I once saw a special where they said they practice for months to learn how to  work the balloon. It takes them like a full year to get the parade ready.  While I think it would be awesome to get to be in the parade I wouldn’t want to because I would miss watching it. 

Tomorrow is the one day (beside Christmas) that I will get up super early without having a million things running through my mind. I know that I will be watching the parade and making dinner. We usually do a light breakfast and then get the television set up.  I put the turkey on when I need to although since our dinner tomorrow is going to be smaller than normal I don’t think I have to put it on until ten. I do have to make a crock-pot full of hot chocolate for the kids though. that way they can have that as they wake up. It is all part of the parade watching tradition. 

So tomorrow we will be gathered around the television while we wait for Santa to make his appearance in the parade. Only once that happens will we even begin to figure out lunch. well of course, the turkey will be in the over cooking but nothing else will get done until the parade is complete. Good thing it doesn’t last all day huh?

Will you be watching?

A huge thank you to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade Press  for all images.