Thousands will be lining up for Macy’s 99th Annual Thanksgiving Day Parade! One year short of the centennial, the parade will feature performances by musical acts Ciara, Colbie Caillat, Busta Rhymes, Mickey Guyton and Debbie Gibson. US Olympians Ilia Malinin, Kristoffer Polaha, and Paralympian Jack Wallace will also appear, and Broadway’s brightest—including the casts of Buena Vista Social Club and Ragtime—will be spotlighted as well. Blending old favorites with fresh icons, balloons include mainstays like SpongeBob and Smokey Bear, and newcomers Buzz Lightyear, Mario, and Derpy Tiger can be found on the roster as well. Set your clocks for a morning of festivity, phenomena, and fun!
WHAT YOU’LL SEE
Image: Anthony Quintano/Flickr
This year’s procession boasts 32 balloons, 23 floats, 11 marching bands, a slew of live performances, hordes of clowns, and over 8,000 total participants.
“We think of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade as this sort of snapshot of pop culture,” says Macy’s Director of Creative Production Brendan Kennedy. “[It’s] truly the yearbook of what’s going on out there, so we’re always trying to ‘plus-up’ the parade experience [and] reflect the culture back.”
As such, the parade will see seven new floats migrating across Central Park West, including Pop Mart’s Friends-giving in POPCITY—boasting the infamous Labubu doll and her furry friends—and The Lego Group’s Brick-tastic Winter Mountain.
On the former float, the two 16-foot-tall furry inflatables—a first in parade history!—will be “mischievously wrapping the buildings for a Friendsgiving party” among other activities, Kennedy explains. The latter, meanwhile, is constructed “to ensure that you can [remake] the entire float out of true LEGOs you have at home,” which would require about 2,500 pieces on a small-scale model of the actual float.
Others on the array of “fantastical modern marvels” include the Wonder Upside Down Invasion float, courtesy of Stranger Things and Netflix, boasting an 8 ½ foot tall Demogorgon, painted by hand and operated by an on-site puppeteer on Parade Day, and the (literal) Littlest Float by Goldfish, utilizing several less-than-8-inch pieces that mimic the size of an actual Goldfish cracker. (The float itself measures up to 14 Goldfish crackers in length.)
A Minion floats during the 2022 parade. Image: Brecht Bug/Flickr.
From the earliest stages of conception and sketching all the way through to sculpting, painting, and carpentry, all the floats are crafted entirely by hand thanks to artisans at the 72,000-square-foot Macy’s Parade Studio in Moonachie, New Jersey, before being broken down to about the size of a school bus and shipped through the Lincoln Tunnel to then be assembled in time for the parade. From conception, “it takes six months to a year for a float or balloon to make it through the complete [design] process,” shares Kennedy. To create the floats, artisans collectively use over 2,000 gallons of paint, 300 pounds of glitter, and 200 pounds of confetti each year.
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE MACY’S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE
Image: Macy's Inc.
Debuting in 1924, the “parade” was originally conceived as Macy’s Christmas Parade as a promotional event to kick off the holiday shopping season. A mix of professional animal handlers and Macy’s employees would march the route with animals from the Central Park Zoo, including donkeys, tigers, elephants and camels. Due to public safety concerns —for both the audience and the animals, “balloon animals,” oversized helium-filled versions of various beloved animated characters and pop culture fixtures, replaced the real ones in 1927.
The first of these was Felix the Cat, based on the anthropomorphic feline popular in the silent film era, which was rumored to have retired after the 1933 festivities. Countless others followed—from Big Bird and Smokey the Bear to Pikachu and Kermit the Frog—clearly spawning one of the most popular elements of the parade, which still continues today: the 2025 lineup features returning favorites like Spider-Man, the Pillsbury Doughboy, Stuart the Minion, and the iconic Macy’s stars, alongside new novelties such as Nintendo’s mustached Mario, PAC-MAN, Buzz Lightyear and an Onion Carriage transporting Shrek and a colorful cast of seven other fairy-tale friends—the total of eight characters is the highest amount to ever appear on a single float in parade history.
And, of course, Snoopy returns, decked out in scout garb as he was last year, to once again mark the 50th anniversary of the dog’s famous Beagle Scouts troop. Since the balloon’s 1968 debut, it has appeared in 43 parades with nine different designs, and holds the record for longest-running parade balloon in Macy’s history.
“These are such iconic characters, which is what we [aim to display] every year,” says Kathleen Wright, Director of Operations for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “[We] try to bring in the best in entertainment and with this [lineup], I think we’ve done it again.” 
Anthony Quintano/Flickr
Every year, approximately 400,000 to 700,000 cubic feet of helium are used to inflate the balloons prior to the parade on Thanksgiving Day. A single large balloon can use up to 12,000 cubic feet of helium alone—for this reason, Macy’s ranks as the #2 highest consumer of helium in the world, second only to—wait for it—the U.S. government.
(With no plan in place to deflate the balloons following their first few appearances, the main attractions were simply released into the air at parade’s finish, a practice which ended in 1932, again—rightfully—over public safety concerns.)
Performances by local bands and Broadway shows have also become a mainstay of the broadcast. Going as far back as 1949 with Milton Berle and Jimmy Durante, the performers lineup has evolved with the times, promoting the latest and greatest in a variety of genres, from Roy Rogers and Soupy Sales to Aretha Franklin and Tony Bennett, to Christina Aguilera and 98 Degrees.
PERFORMERS (& MORE) FOR 2025
This year’s parade touts a highly anticipated appearance from Conan Gray, as well as singers and music groups like Jewel, Foreigner, Kool & the Gang, Mickey Guyton, and Ciara & Gavin DeGraw.
Christopher Jackson, Moulin Rouge!’s Meg Donnelly, Darlene Love and New York City Ballet’s Tiler Peck will be on hand, as will EJAE, Audrey Nuna & Rei Ami, the singers behind the Netflix sensation, KPOP Demon Hunters. And high-flying Wicked superstar Cynthia Erivo will kick it all off with a sparkling, swankified, see-it-to-believe-it opening number.
Live marching bands, promoting local high school and college groups, were added to the roster in 1971; the lineup this year sees more than 10 impressive organizations, including the Catawba Ridge High School Marching Band from Fort Mill, SC; Northern Arizona University Lumberjack Marching Band from Flagstaff, AZ; The Spartans Drum and Bugle Corps from Nashua, NH; La Banda de Música la Primavera, all the way from Santiago de Veraguas, Panama, and the return of both the NYPD Marching Band and Macy’s Great American Marching Band from right here in New York, NY.
And of course, you can’t have a quintessential New York City parade without saluting the best of Broadway, which in the past have been audiences’ first introductions to shows like Wicked, Moulin Rouge!, Billy Elliott, Dear Evan Hansen, and Mean Girls.
On tap this year are spectacular numbers from the Tony-nominated Buena Vista Social Club, the Jonathan Groff-fronted Just in Time, and the hit revival of Ragtime. Dancers from A Chorus Line: The Next Generation, spearheaded by choreographer and original cast member Baayork Lee, will showcase alumni and students from NYC public schools in honor of the musical’s 50th anniversary. Also on tap are the Radio City Rockettes, who mark the 100th anniversary of their launch with this year’s Christmas Spectacular at the titular Music Hall through January 4, 2026.
It’s all capped off by a grand finale visit from that holly jolly giant in red, ushering in the holidays and getting you into the wintry spirit in style!
“It’s pure entertainment. Every year, everybody knows that they can tune in to see the best of family entertainment without issue,” says Amy Kule, Executive Producer of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. “Differences can fall aside…you show up to witness or participate in the [parade] and you’re instantly a kid again. It’s a pretty magical thing.”
The parade runs down Central Park West from 77th St. to Columbus Circle, along Central Park South to Sixth Ave., and concludes along 34th St. at Macy’s Herald Square. Line up early, and skip trying to find space on Sixth Ave. between West 34th and West 38th Sts. and West 34th Street itself, as the national TV broadcast limits viewing there. The parade runs 9am-noon. macys.com/s/parade
