Macy s thanksgiving day balloons

How it works

The parade is a civic procession through Manhattan that ends at Macy’s Herald Square. Macy’s employees staged the first one in 1924, billed then as a Christmas parade. It settled on Thanksgiving morning as the annual date. Thanksgiving Day in the United States is the fourth Thursday of November. In 2026 that Thursday is 26 November. In 2027 it is 25 November. The balloons are the signature objects of that morning, not a separate holiday with their own square.

Giant inflatable figures entered the march in 1927, designed as upside-down marionettes by the puppeteer Tony Sarg. Felix the Cat is among the early character balloons. Later years added other licensed figures and house characters. The lineup changes. Last year’s roster is not this year’s. Handlers on the ground walk each figure on tethers. The object is a flying bag of gas, not a float on wheels.

You watch from a sidewalk, from a window along the route, or on television. NBC has carried a national broadcast for decades. The televised morning is not the same object as standing on a kerb in late-November cold. Cameras cut. The street still has to pass each balloon in order. Dress for a long stand, not for a sofa.

Wednesday inflation is not Thursday’s march

Inflation is a separate public viewing, usually on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving on the Upper West Side around the American Museum of Natural History. People go to watch the figures fill out on their sides before they ever fly. That afternoon is not the parade. It is the workshop, outdoors, in whatever weather November gives. Entry rules, bag rules, and hours belong to that year’s notice. Do not treat a memory of a 1 p.m. opening as a law.

Confirm the Thursday: Thanksgiving 2026 is 26 November. Treat inflation as the Wednesday before, then read that year’s posted hours and gate. Treat the march as a morning in Eastern Time; other U.S. zones watch New York’s clock.

Pick a stretch: open sky along the route, or the finish at Herald Square. The usual posted start for the march has been 8:30 a.m. Eastern. That is a posted time, not physics. Road closures and the television window can shift in a given year. Sidewalk space is first come. Hotels and indoor windows along the route are private arrangements, not general admission.

Wind, tethers, and a figure that stays down

Wind and weather can keep a balloon from flying. That is a safety call. A grounded balloon is still part of the morning’s record. Early in the parade’s life, figures were released into the sky after the march; that practice ended after aviation trouble. Today the job is to fly only when the street can hold the object, then get it down.

A balloon that stays on the pavement because the wind is up has already done the only job that matters. The parade paused during World War II and then returned. Santa Claus traditionally closes the march, which is why the balloons sit in a Thanksgiving morning that is also the start of many households’ Christmas looking. The balloons do not move 25 December. They occupy the Thursday the statute already named. From Thursday 3 September 2026, that Thursday is still weeks ahead. If you needed “is it today,” the answer is no until that morning in New York.