Best Balloons Featured in the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade

On the third Thursday in November, Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, which might be the last truly family, non-commercialized holiday in the world. On this day families gather around the table to celebrate the arrival of the earliest settlers in the Northeast and pause to remember their first meal of thanks for having survived the first year of their settlement as well as each families' individual blessings. As part of the traditions of this very American holiday which include turkey, stuffing pumpkin pie and football with family and friends one of the most popular parades is held to welcome both the Christmas season and Santa Claus. Since 1955 as the smells of the dinner to come are filtering through the house this Thanksgiving tradition begins as the family gathers around the TV to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade, the traditional opening of the Christmas season.

The Parade was devised by the department store in 1924 as a way to kick off the Christmas shopping season which begins the day after Thanksgiving (or it use to) and originally featured live animals from the Central Park Zoo until 1926. The first balloons appeared in 1927 and have remained the most familiar feature of the parade over the last 70 years to many Americans. Though the balloons were at first released into the air after the end of the parade this was discontinued in 1933 for reasons of safety(the store once offered a $100 gift certificate to anyone who returned a balloon and one pilot attempted to catch one with his plane in 1932 almost crashing himself in the process) as well as expense due to the deepening Depression. Other AC content producers have given more complete histories of the parade so I need not go any further with mine. However what I want to tall you about in my article is one of the most popular features of the parade,the large balloons.