The Making of America’s Parade

This magical event heralds the beginning of the holiday season, but it takes more than magic to bring this event to life.
By Rebecca L. Rhoades

It’s a Thanksgiving tradition that rivals turkey and pumpkin pie. Each year, as millions of Americans turn on their stoves in preparation of the day’s meal, they also turn on their televisions to watch one of the country’s longest-running and most famous holiday celebrations: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

This year will be no different as the parade celebrates its 83rd year. Since 1924, the parade has symbolically kicked off the traditional holiday season. (It was temporarily suspended during World War II when the rubber used to make the balloons was donated to the war effort.) Yet even after all this time, it shows no signs of slowing down, with hundreds of thousands of spectators flocking to New York City to view the parade’s giant floats, numerous celebrity performances and its signature character balloons.

But as the crowds watch in awe as the figures float the two-and-a-half miles down Central Park West and through Times Square toward Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square, few realize the massive effort and creative skills that go into making the parade a success.

“I’m very proud of the fact that people have no idea of all that goes in to putting on this parade,” says John Piper, vice president of Macy’s Parade Studio. “It shows that my team is doing their job well.”

That “team” is a group of 24 talented artists, carpenters, engineers and more who work—or as Piper puts it, “live and breathe the parade”—at the Hoboken, New Jersey-based Parade Studio. For more than 40 years, the studio has operated out of what was once a Tootsie Roll factory on the northern edge of town. Inside the nondescript building, which is not open for public tours, is a magical world where art and imagination meet science to create the show-stopping balloons and floats that have made the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade a favorite of young and old alike.

“I always say that it takes three things to work here,” says Piper. “You have to be an artist, you have to be at least part engineer, and you can never grow up.”

Those Wonderful Balloons
The main attraction of the parade is the giant character balloons, also referred to as giant inflatable sculptures. On average, each 60-foot long (or 60-foot tall) balloon is as wide as three lanes of traffic and filled with approximately 12,000 cubic feet of helium. “You could stuff about 15,000 basketballs inside one of them,” jokes Piper.

Each character begins with a two-dimensional sketch, and the design is then evaluated by engineering consultants who calculate its aerodynamics, buoyancy and life. Next, two scale models, one clay and the other painted, are made before the actual balloon is cut out of polyurethane, the pieces of which are hot-sealed together to form the final shape. Each balloon features several chambers with zippers, inflation devices and high-pressure valves. And before each balloon is “parade-ready,” it must undergo rigorous inflation, flight and deflation tests. The entire process can take as long as nine months from conception to flight.

“When we fly the new balloons outside for the first time, we call it Balloonfest,” says Piper. “It’s a public unveiling for the media, but it’s also our final check on all of the aerodynamics and engineering that go into the balloons, and it gives us an opportunity to tweak anything before the parade.”

This year’s parade will feature 4 new giant character balloons, as well as another 11 returning giant balloons and 20 medium- and small-sized balloons. While Piper remains tight-lipped about what new characters will be unveiled, he does mention the appearance of a new Mickey Mouse balloon.

Choosing which characters will join the lineup of beloved balloons is an ongoing process. “As we get new balloons in the parade, we want to pick characters that are exciting and engaging for kids of all ages,” says Piper. “They’ve got to reach out to people and bring out the kid inside of them. It’s deciding who is near and dear to our hearts because they’re new, because they’re classic, because they’re exciting, because they’re different.”

On Thanksgiving Eve, the balloons are brought across the Hudson River to New York City’s Upper West Side, where on the streets surrounding the American Museum of Natural History, they’re brought to life. This event is open to the public, and each year, hundreds of New Yorkers and in-the-know tourists gather to watch the balloons get inflated.

Grand Floats
Another part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade is the floats, which are also produced by the staff of the Parade Studio. The building’s high vaulted ceilings and wide-open spaces offer an ideal setting for creating such spectacles, but the advantage is short-lived.

“Each float has to come down to no more than 12 feet tall and no more than 8½ feet wide so it can fit through a toll booth heading to the Lincoln Tunnel,” says Piper. And that’s no small feat, considering that on average each 30- to 40-foot long float, when assembled, is 3 to 4 stories tall and 20 feet wide.

“The night before Thanksgiving, the float crew heads over to New York City in a convoy of floats, which are all collapsed and disassembled. That convoy is over a mile long,” says Piper. Parade lovers are welcome to join the many Hobokenites who gather each year to watch this procession as it makes its way out of Hoboken, under the river and onto the world stage.

As with the balloons, each float begins with a color sketch and exact scale drawing. A variety of materials, such as wood, steel, fiberglass, foam and fabric, are used to create the setting and oversized sculptures, and each element is painstakingly hand-painted.

“Every single float is designed and built by [the staff of Macy’s Parade Studio],” says Piper. “And they’re all giant stages in addition to being giant sculptures.”

Of course, the most important stage is the last one in the parade and the one for which every child anxiously waits.

“As you know, Santa makes his official arrival every year at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” says Piper, his voice brimming with childlike enthusiasm. “That’s how we know that the holidays are coming. And this year he’s coming on a brand-new float with a giant sleigh that is beautiful. It’s one of the biggest things we’ve ever made, and it’s definitely one of the most complex floats we’ve ever made. But it was to Santa’s specifications, and you have to do what the man in the red suit tells you.”

The float, which features Santa and his reindeer departing over the rooftops of his toy factory in the North Pole, will be a dazzling display of glistening snow, lights and color. And riding above it all, two-and-a-half stories in the air, will be Santa himself.

“One of the things that I think is surprising when you think of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is that we always strive to move forward and bring tomorrow into today, but we never let go of yesterday,” says Piper. “I think that it embodies what America is all about. This is our holiday, and this is our parade. And I’m just blessed and very fortunate to be working with the team that gets to bring it out to the people each year. It’s a holiday that’s just filled with everything good, so you can’t help but be happy.”


If You Go
The parade begins at 9 a.m. EST. Arrive early as crowds start accumulating at the crack of dawn.
2009 Parade Route
This year marks a change in the parade route. Please take note of the new route if you plan on attending.
• The parade starts at 77th Street and Central Park West
• Heads South down Central Park West until it reaches Columbus Circle at 59th Street
• Turns East at Columbus Circle along Central Park South
• Turns South at 7th Avenue, continues along 7th Avenue through Times Square until 42nd Street
• At 42nd Street, the route turns East on 42nd Street for 1 block until 6th Avenue • Turns South onto 6th Avenue
• Continues south on 6th Avenue to finish in front of Macy’s in Herald Square at 34th Street
For more information, visit Macys.com/parade.

The information in this story was accurate when it was published on the AAA World Web site in November 2009, but details such as dates, times and prices may have changed since then. We suggest you verify such details directly with the listed establishments before making travel plans.