America's most watched parade and the unofficial opening ceremony of the holiday season. Since 1924, giant helium balloons, elaborate floats, marching bands from across the country, and Broadway musical performances have processed 2.5 miles from 77th Street down Central Park West to Macy's Herald Square. The balloon characters — Snoopy, Spiderman, Pikachu — are inflated the Wednesday evening before in a public event on the Upper West Side that draws its own enormous crowd. Watching the parade live in a cold New York November morning, surrounded by the city at its most communal, is a genuinely moving American experience.
The balloon inflation Wednesday evening on 77th–81st Streets (Central Park West) is less crowded than parade day and extraordinary up close. Central Park West between 61st and 75th Streets offers good parade views with slightly less crush than the Herald Square finish area.