77th St. & Central Park West to 34th St. & Seventh Ave.
Thursday, November 24, free, 9:00 am – 12 noon
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In 1924, a bunch of Macy’s employees joined forces and held the first Macy’s Christmas Parade, as it was then known. This year Macy’s celebrates the ninetieth edition of this beloved American event — for those of you going crazy trying to figure out how 1924 to 2016 makes 90, the parade was canceled from 1942 through 1944 because of World War II — with the publication of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade: A New York City Holiday Tradition (Rizzoli, August 2016, $29.95). “This iconic and truly American event started on the streets of New York City in 1924 as a way for New York’s largely immigrant workforce employed at Macy’s department store to celebrate our national day of Thanksgiving in a manner befitting the customs of their native lands,” Governor Andrew Cuomo writes in the foreword. “Today, no other holiday event can match its large-scale pageantry, diversity, and place in pop culture. It could only have been created in New York.” The oversized hardcover features nearly two hundred photographs by Matt Harnick and the Macy’s Archives that reveal the before, during, and after of the parade through the decades, in color and black-and-white, from shots of the balloon creation in New Jersey to pictures of beloved characters marching down Fifth Ave. “Actual preparation for each year’s parade takes approximately eighteen months, with the construction of an individual float requiring anywhere from four to six months,” Stephen H. Silverman notes in his behind-the-scenes essay that introduces readers to many of the people responsible for making things happen, from sketching and designing balloons to arranging the celebrity list to dismantling floats once the parade is over.
“Most often the parade adequately reflects what is going on in American mass culture, news, and entertainment at the time,” parade executive producer Amy Kule tells Silverman. “We try to be nimble. What we can’t be is too cool or fashion-forward.” The 2016 lineup, which cannot be accused of being too cool or fashion-forward, features such giant balloons as Hello Kitty, Pillsbury Doughboy, and Charlie Brown, such floats as 1-2-3 Sesame Street, Mount Rushmore’s American Pride, and Cracker Jack’s At the Ball Game, and such performers as De la Soul, Fitz and the Tantrums, Regina Spektor, Tony Bennett, and Sara McLachlan. To get a start on the parade, head on over to Central Park West and Columbus Ave. between 77th & 81st Sts. the day before, November 23, from approximately 3:00 to 10:00 to check out the Big Balloon Blow-up.