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In New York City, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade (often erroneously referred to as the "Macy's Day Parade") is held annually every Thanksgiving Day from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Macy's flagship store in Herald Square, and televised nationally by NBC. The parade features parade floats with specific themes, scenes from Broadway plays, large balloons of cartoon characters and TV personalities, and high school marching bands. The float that traditionally ends the Macy's Parade is the Santa Claus float, the arrival of which unofficially signifies that the Christmas season has begun. Thanksgiving parades also appear in many other cities, including: Chicago, Illinois (McDonald's Thanksgiving Parade), airs on WGN-TV and WGN America Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (6abc IKEA Thanksgiving Day Parade), claims to be the oldest parade, launched in 1920 and airs on WPVI-TV Plymouth, Massachusetts (America's Hometown Thanksgiving Parade), held the Saturday before Thanksgiving Houston, Texas (H-E-B Holiday Parade), airs on KHOU-TV St. Louis, Missouri (Ameren St. Louis Thanksgiving Parade), airs on KMOV Detroit, Michigan (America's Thanksgiving Parade), airs on WDIV-TV Seattle, Washington Fountain Hills, Arizona Stamford, Connecticut (UBS Parade Spectacular), held the Sunday before Thanksgiving, designed as a complement to the Macy's parade Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, Minnesota (Target Holidazzle Parades), a series of parades that begin the Friday after Thanksgiving Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (Celebrate the Season Parade), airs the Saturday after Thanksgiving, airs on WPXI The Pittsburgh and Minneapolis parades are co-sponsored by Macy's. Several other parades have a loose association with Thanksgiving, thanks to CBS's now-discontinued All-American Thanksgiving Day Parade coverage. Parades that were covered during this era were the Aloha Floral Parade held in Honolulu, Hawaii every September, the Toronto Santa Claus Parade in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and the Opryland Aqua Parade (held from 1996 to 2001 by the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville); the Opryland parade was discontinued replaced by a taped parade in Miami Beach, Florida in 2002. A Disneyland parade was also featured on CBS until Disney purchased rival ABC. |
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Parades
