Up, up and away! See 10 decades of Thanksgiving Day parade balloons

Snoopy. Bart Simpson. Betty Boop. The annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will soon bring together an unrivaled cast of balloon characters, along with floats, musical acts and people of all ages — from around the globe — to take it all in along New York City’s streets.

The balloons, perhaps the flagship component of the whole affair, have been around since almost the beginning. CNN floats down memory lane with a visual history of some of the iconic balloons and how the New York landscape has changed alongside this beloved American holiday event.

Originally dubbed the Macy’s Christmas Parade, the first event took off on November 24, 1924, in front of a crowd of 10,000. In 1927, Macy’s changed its name to the Thanksgiving Day Parade, debuting balloons that same year.

The Inspector

Dachshund

Old Man Dragon

Felix the Cat

Parade onlookers hit the one million mark in the 1930s, and in 1933, the parade added sound effects to the balloons. The dachshund barked, the pig oinked and the baby cried. Andy the Alligator even hissed like a real reptile. Mickey Mouse made his first appearance in 1934.

Tin Man

Two-Headed Pirate

Mickey Mouse

Elephant

The parade paused for the first time in 1942 for World War II. Macy’s President Jack Straus donated approximately 650 pounds of rubber balloon material to the war effort. In 1945, after the war ended, two million people turned out for the parade.

Clown

Uncle Sam

Santa Claus

Fish

Popeye made his debut in 1957 in a rain-soaked spectacle. Macy's recalls the rain filled up his hat and weighed it down so far that it eventually poured the water out, snapping it back up. The following year was tricky, with the nation’s helium supply running low due to the Cold War and space race, according to the US Army. This required balloons to be displayed using cranes.

Space Cadet

Mighty Mouse

Teddy Bear

Popeye

President John F. Kennedy was assassinated just days before the 1963 parade. While the nation mourned, the show went on. In 1968, Macy’s presented Snoopy for the first time as a Flying Ace and he has since become the longest running balloon in the parade.

Superman

Bullwinkle

Donald Duck

Snoopy

The parade was grounded in 1971 because of a torrential downpour that would have made balloon flight perilous.

Mickey Mouse

Kermit the Frog

Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse

Bullwinkle

Macy’s ended its partnership with Goodyear and balloon production moved in-house under designer Manfred Bass. The parade was hit with its first snowstorm in 1989, stranding some balloon handlers and necessitating some cheerleaders to pinch hit on balloon duty.

Betty Boop

Pink Panther

Snoopy

Woody Woodpecker

America’s bad boy Bart Simpson debuted in 1990. The 1997 parade experienced extreme winds, with gusts reaching 40 mph. One balloon struck a lamppost and knocked it into the crowd, hitting a woman who suffered a fractured skull. Rules were introduced to ground balloons at winds over 32 mph.

Garfield

Clifford the Big Red Dog

Bart Simpson

Spider-Man

Charlie Brown, trying to kick a football, debuted in 2002. The balloon was 53-feet-long, 29-feet-wide and nearly 51-feet-tall and was filled with 13,330 cubic feet of helium.

Big Bird

Little Bill

Charlie Brown

Keith Haring Art

Kung Fu Panda took flight for the first time in 2010. Street artist Kaws also created a 41-foot-long balloon. In 2019, balloons were forced to fly low because of high winds; some were only a few feet off the ground.

Kung Fu Panda

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Kaws

B.

In 2020, the parade was a TV-only event as the Covid-19 pandemic kept crowds home because of safety concerns. In recent years, 3.5 million people have lined the streets to watch. The 2023 parade will feature seven new balloons, according to the Macy's parade site.

Boss Baby

Stuart the Minion

Pikachu and Eevee

Tiptoe