For as long as I can remember the Christmas season didn’t start until Santa Claus arrived in front of Macy’s at the end to of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. I never realized the holiday tradition was started in 1924 by Macy’s employees most of whom were first generation immigrants and where so proud of their country they wanted to celebrate it in with a type of festival their parents loved in Europe . It used to be the Macy’s Christmas Day Parade and featured animals from the Central Park Zoo.

Those famous helium filled balloons made their first appearance in 1927 and at the time were released into the air at the end of the parade and much to everyone’s surprise burst over Manhattan. The following year the balloons were redesigned with safety valves that let them float for days and featured return address labels that offered prizes for anyone returning the balloon to the store. Now that’s a marketing campaign. In 1934 Macy’s balloon designer worked with Walt Disney to create the first Mickey Mouse balloon.

For a brief time the parade stopped. From 1942-1944 Macy’s did what company’s all over the United States were doing, they focused on the war effort. Because of a rubber and helium shortage, Macy’s deflated and then donated 650 pounds of scrap rubber. Remember when companies did what was best to the country and not what was best for their pocket?

1946 brought the first televised viewing of the parade, taking it some a local NY tradition to something that’s now engrained in American tradition, well at least to me. Did you know floats didn’t start in the parade until 1969? I didn’t, up until then they had something called falloons, a combination float and balloon. Floats can be up to 40 feet tall and can actually be folded up to pass through the Holland tunnel and reassembled in time for step off at 9am Thanksgiving morning.

Hope you enjoyed a little parade history, it may not be what the pilgrims, founders or yes, even the Native American's evisioned as tradition for the day you have to have a little fun to go along with the solemn reminders of all the things we hold dear and are thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving
Mala