Every year, more than 3.5 million spectators line the streets of the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade route in New York City, while 50 million television viewers watch from the comfort of their homes. This American tradition began during the 1920’s when the second Macy’s store opened after the success of the first opening. The store covered an entire city block from Broadway to seventh avenue along 34th street. To promote the world’s largest store, Macy’s decided to commemorate their success by throwing together a parade on Thanksgiving morning to celebrate the upcoming shopping season, Christmas. At the time the parade was created, it was designed to have nothing to do with Thanksgiving at all, but everything to do with the holidays. Macy’s hoped its “Christmas Parade” would have consumers buzzing about the holiday season.

 At 9 a.m. on the morning of November 27th 1926,  Macy’s gave the children of New York a special Thanksgiving treat. Police escorts led the start of the parade from the intersection of 145th Street and Convent Avenue. The early-morning start time of Macy’s Christmas Parade overlapped with many church services, but it gave viewers plenty of time to make it to the afternoon’s big football games, whether it being on TV or in person.

 Macy’s had originally promised parade-goers a 26 mile parade but then realized their ambitions were highly impractical. It was downsized to a 6-mile long hike for those marching from Harlem to Herald Square in the parade. To match the nursery rhyme theme in Macy’s Christmas displays in their original stores, floats featured Mother Goose favorites, such as the “Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe”, “Little Miss Muffet” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” Macy’s employees dressed as clowns, cowboys and sword-wielding knights. A plethora of animals on loan from the Central Park Zoo included bears, elephants, camels and monkeys, were featured in the parade as well. The end of the parade was a float bearing the guest of honor, Santa Claus, sitting in his sleigh driven by his eight tiny reindeer on a rooftop.

 Macy’s Christmas Parade quickly became a New York holiday tradition made for the joy of others. Junior Hayley Kaplan said, “My family and I wake up early to watch the Macy’s Day Parade every Thanksgiving. It’s a fun tradition that we all share and come together for. I especially love seeing the different floats and balloons.”

 While the route has been scaled back in length to two-and-a-half miles, the size of the parade itself has flourished with dozens of balloons, marching bands, celebrities and the talented New York Rockettes. Although it is now called the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Santa Claus remains the show-stopper; his arrival in Herald Square still brings in the Christmas season to New York.