The history behind the Thanksgiving Day Parade

What do you get when you have 800 clowns, 1600 cheerleaders and 50 million viewers? The 85th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, of course. Watching the parade on Thanksgiving morning is a tradition for countless families, although many no longer get up early to watch it.

Getting up early is a requirement for helping with the parade and many of the 4,000 volunteers arrive at the starting point before 4 a.m. Over 3.5 million spectators line the streets of New York City, and more than 50 million TV viewers tune in to watch the 8,000 parade participants. There are also live internet feeds as more than 27 floats, 15 giant character balloons, and 11 marching bands lead Santa Claus to Macy's Department Store, according to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade website.

Parkland Library Technical Services Assistant Lisa Brantley says that she enjoys watching the parade on TV although it isn't really a tradition in her family. "It is the beginning of the Christmas season, and I enjoy seeing Santa Claus every year," she said. She continued to say that she also enjoys the music and the bands.

Music was not part of the original "Christmas Parade," which began in 1924 to promote holiday sales at Macy's department store in New York City. At the time, department stores were very competitive, trying to top one another with marketing stunts and promotions in order to drive sales. When one store introduced a live Santa Claus suddenly all the stores had to have one. When Gimble's Department Store started a parade, many other stores followed suit.

Parkland student, D.J. Judy said, "I know it sounds silly, but it helps me get in the Christmas mood. Every year we watch the parade and football." Another Parkland student, Mallorey Pivovar, said that she would watch it if the TV was already on but made no special effort to get up early for it.

While Macy's is not the oldest continuous parade, it is the most well-known. The first Macy's parade, called the Macy's Christmas Parade, was full of costumed employees who marched five miles to the store with horse drawn floats and animals that were borrowed from the Central Park Zoo.

There have been few changes to the parade since the first one. Zoo animals are no longer used and the route was reduced to 2.5 miles in the late 1940's to make it easier for television crews. The biggest change occurred when the parade was suspended for the WWII years of 1942-1944 due to rubber and helium shortages. The department store instead donated their 650 pounds of rubber balloons to the military.

The large balloons appeared early in the parade's history and from the beginning there have been problems with them. The balloons made their first appearance in 1927 with a popular cartoon character called Felix the Cat. At the end of the parade the balloon was let go with the anticipation that it would float for a few days and then come down somewhere. Instead, it exploded before it cleared the city and hurt several people. The following years saw revised balloons with safety valves and address labels for people to return the balloon in order to receive a reward. More people were hurt trying to return the balloons and many of the balloons were ruined in the process.

Today, the parade has 15 giant character balloons, some larger than a 6-story building. Each balloon requires 50-60 people with special equipment and training to handle it, especially in bad weather. Handlers must use padded gloves because holding the handle attached to the balloon would become unbearably uncomfortable before the end of the parade, according to http://attractionsmagazine.com. Because of several recent accidents, parade rules have also changed to prohibit balloons if the winds are over 34 mph.

Floats present their own set of difficulties. Transporting the floats from the New Jersey building site to the parade route the night before the parade requires using the Lincoln Tunnel, a mile-and-a-half-long highway running under the Hudson River, which connects NY to NJ. In order to fit through the tunnel, each float has to be designed so that it can be compacted or folded from average dimensions of approximately 24 feet wide by 40 feet high to 8 feet wide by 12.5 feet high.

All parade floats are created and built by Macy's Parade Studios. The studio employs fifty people year round, who not only prepare for the parade, but also create other Macy store event items such as the huge Christmas tree for use in San Francisco.

After 43 years in Hoboken, NJ, Macy's studio will soon be moving to a new facility in Moonachie, NJ. The new facility contains nearly 72,000 square feet, nearly doubling the size of the 40,000 square foot current facility and includes a ceiling crane for lifting heavy scenery and characters to the floats.

This new facility ensures that the parade intends to continue to be a mainstay in the homes of Americans on Thanksgiving days for years to come, continuing the tradition for more families to enjoy.