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Parade 1 min read

Macy's parade reaches its 100th edition, 102 years after the first one

A row of amber and ochre paper balloon shapes on a deep brown ground, each tethered by thin cream lines

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924. It reaches its hundredth edition in 2026, and the two-year gap between those numbers is the whole trick: the parade did not run in 1942, 1943 or 1944.

Macy's parade 2026: the date

Thursday, November 26, 2026, over the usual 2.5-mile route from the Upper West Side down to Macy's Herald Square.

The number they are chasing

A record lineup of 100 inflatable elements — the round figure being, transparently, the point.

What is new in the air and on the ground

A Harry Potter float built as the Great Hall at Hogwarts, complete with the Sorting Hat and all four house banners. A new Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey balloon. The return of Underdog. And a float honoring Tony Sarg, the puppeteer who designed the first balloons and effectively invented what the parade looks like.

Where to see one of them early

The Harry Potter float makes its public debut at a Macy's Studio preview on November 17, nine days ahead of the parade itself.

The Sarg float is the one worth knowing about before you stand on Central Park West for three hours. Tony Sarg turned the parade from a march with animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo into a procession of giant helium puppets in the late 1920s, which is why the event reads as a balloon parade rather than a marching-band parade — every element in the sky on November 26 is downstream of one puppeteer's idea. Practical note on the centennial: a milestone year draws milestone crowds, and the reliable trick remains the same as every year — the stretch along Central Park West in the 70s fills earliest, and the blocks below Columbus Circle fill last.

Source: Time Out New York checked against the source

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