Part of a Thanksgiving Day tradition as ubiquitous as turkey and football, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade makes its way through the streets of New York City this Thursday with its signature fare of marching bands, Radio City Rockettes, ornate floats, pop stars and, of course, Santa Claus.
But one attraction dating back to the fourth Macy’s parade in 1927 soars over them all — the giant character balloons. Designed and built in-house by artists and engineers with Macy’s Studio, each year’s balloon lineup captures a mix of classic and new characters in pop culture and entertainment. Some balloons vary in size but can exceed the length of a couple of school buses.
“There’s a balance of legacy character and iconic character and new characters that are interesting and appealing to our young audience,” said Will Coss, executive producer of Macy’s Studio. “We like to say we have an audience age of 1 to 100 and our goal in any one of our balloon production windows is to ensure we have a little something for everyone.”