Thanksgiving Day Parade
By: Alexa Smith 12/7/23
Did you watch the Thanksgiving Day Parade with your family and/or friends? Because the parade was such an amazing experience! It was on Thursday, November 23, 2023 and there were millions gathering around to witness all the balloons, floats, performances, and all the lovely characters that joined us, including Mrs and Mr. Claus! There were many marching bands, floats, and balloons. They also had many performers and performances.
The Macy’s day parade has almost been around for 100 years! It’s the 97th anniversary this year for the parade. It was broadcasted at 8:30am by NBC a half an hour earlier than usual. There were 12 marching bands that performed. One marching band even started playing the famous Disney song, “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” from Walt Disney’s Lion King!
With 5,000 volunteers, they were able to have 31 floats, 25 balloons, and over 700 clowns! Some of the floats that they had were floats such as, 1-2-3 Sesame Street, Big Turkey Spectacular, Deck the Halls, Heartwarming Holiday Countdown, Palace of Sweets, The Deliciously Delectable World of Wonka, and I could go on and on, but like I said, there are 31 floats so I can’t name everything, but those are the really popular ones they had. I asked Taylor Vaughn what she thought of the parade and she said, “I liked how creative the people were this year. I also liked the new duck balloon.“
Some new balloons they had were, Uncle Dan, The Pillsbury Doughboy, Monkey D. Luffy, Leo, Kung Fu Panda’s Po, Blue Cat & Chugs, and Beagle Scout Snoopy. Some non-new famous balloons are balloons such as, Diary Of A Wimpy Kid, Bluey, Grogu, Chase from Paw Patrol, Ronald Mcdonald, Tiptoe, Spongebob Squarepants and Gary, and Stuart the Minion. There were so many amazing balloons and floats that they had. The Marching Bands’ performances were also just as amazing.
Speaking of performances, let’s talk about the famous performers who joined us at the parade. All of the singers and performers they had were, Alex Smith and Amanda Shaw, Ashley Park, Bell Biv DeVoe, Brandy, Chicago, David Foster & Katharine McPhee, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors, ENHYPEN, En Vogue, Jessie James Decker, Jon Batiste, Manuel Turizo, Miss America Grace Stanke, Paul Russell, and Pentatonix. But one singer that stood out was the famous singer, Cher! She was such a joy to listen to as she sang, “DJ Play a Christmas Song.”
The Macy’s Day Parade was such an amazing experience for everyone, which Katelynn Coffman agrees with, she says, “The parade was very nice, I really liked it and I loved seeing the new balloons.“, I asked another person, Tinley Jablonski, about her opinion on the parade, and she said, “I really liked the parade and how they add new floats and balloons each year. It’s very cute when a little kid says something like, ‘There’s Bluey!’ or something like that which is just really sweet.“ I got all of my information from the helpful sites, macys.com and The New York Times. So what do you think? Will you watch the parade next year?