You will see the new floats in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

On November 24, 2024By Littum

NEW YORK (WPIX) – Some real characters are getting ready for next week’s holiday activities in New York City.

Six new balloons and seven new floats will appear in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As big as the fleets are, they must also be small. Their big move is the day before Thanksgiving when they travel from New Jersey to Manhattan.

“They can all shrink down to the size of a city bus. We transport them from New Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel to our starting line on Central Park West,” said Kathleen Wright, director of production operations at Macy’s Studios.

New faces for the 2024 parade include Wednesday and Pugsley from the Netflix series “Wednesday.” From the looks of their faces, they could be the anti-Thanksgiving day float.

Sculptors spent 100 hours creating the figures and their disapproving features.

Dora the Explorer is in a better mood. She smiles as flowers bloom. The Bronx Zoo float features life-size models of animals on parade.

Pasta Knight celebrates pasta night. Rao’s Homemade has fun with noodles and hosts a first-ever fire-breathing dragon on the float. Look for the elbow macaroni claws and the rigatoni pony with an angel hair pasta mane.

Brandan Kennedy is director of creative production for Macy’s Studios. He said it takes six months to a year to create floats and balloons.

“There are 3.5 million people on the streets watching in New York City and almost 30 million at home. We’re trying to tell a story as quickly as possible and make everyone feel good,” Kennedy said.

The first parade was in 1924. It was canceled twice during World War II. This is the 98th annual event.

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