It was November 24, 2022, and just like every year, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade took place in New York City. At 9 a.m the parade started at West 77th street and Central park west until at noon it reached Central park south. This year was the 96th anniversary of the parade; it first started in 1948 and since then it has been a tradition to do it every Thanksgiving. 

Top celebrities like Mariah Carey, Jordan Sparks, Jimmy Fallon, Sean Paul and so many more have been welcomed to participate in this event. Mariah Carey, or “Songbird Supreme”, came to the parade dressed in a stunning pink dress and performed her massive hit ‘All I want for Christmas’ on stage. Sean Paul brought the party to the streets with his 16-year-old classic ‘Temperature’ and became the first dancehall artist to perform at the parade.

The parade had 300 pounds of glitter sprinkled on the costumes, floats, balloons, and more. The parade also includes about 4,200 costumes. The team in New York, preparing for the big event spent a lot of their time getting costumes ready for the participants in the event and over 5,000 people were involved in the parade, from being on top of floats singing to being behind the scenes making sure the event is ready. Now one thing people think of when they hear about the parade is the giant balloons on top of floats! Before, it was a tradition to let go of the balloons after the parade and watch them float into the sky, and if anyone found one, they would get a reward. But now finding out how bad it is for the environment, after the parade the people working will deflate the balloons and crate them to send them to New Jersey for another year to come. The balloons for this year have been once again a great success, from an older one the Pillsbury Doughboy to our fun and kind new dog bluey. Did you know that the biggest balloon to ever appear at the parade is the old man dragon which made history in 1929 measuring 178 feet in length? 

Now as we are finished with Thanksgiving and jump right into the winter holidays as we are all buying presents, decorating, and having fun, there are people back in New York preparing for next year’s parade. One question everyone seems to wonder is how much does the whole parade cost? Well, we will likely never know according to Stephan M. Silverman, “Macy’s won’t disclose that,” he explained. “As they say, it’s a gift to the city, and, as with any gift, you don’t leave the price tag on.”