Thanksgiving Day Parade

If you have kids, and there's any way you can make it to the Macy's Parade, make sure to do it. I did it for the third time this year, since now my younger kids are getting old enough to remember it. It is one of the best things they will ever see in person. You never see stuff like this in day to day life. It's famous and they will always watch with fondness and remember they have been there.

Sure, objectively, it's very cheesy, but it's so much fun. They must have the number 1 Santa in the whole country. His act is so good that I even get a little choked up and question everything I know for a moment, when I see him in person on that last float.

Stay close- for the only view worth going for, line up on the route by 6:15-6:30 for front row seats. You can do this by driving in at a ridiculous hour. Even if you live in Staten Island, like I did once, you have to get up at 4, make it into Manhattan, and get on a train etc... This year, we paid a couple hundred for a room 2 blocks away. It was worth every penny, and we only booked it a few weeks ago. Get up at 6, grab a Pop Tart, roll out the door and get coffee on the way. We got evening checkout, and stayed until 5:00, so we got a bite to eat and took a nap afterward. (don't get too much coffee though, or you'll need to have your family stand around you in a circle while you "go" in an empty Gatorade bottle. You're going to be there for like 4 hours. Later on, the crowd will make it near impossible to transit, even if your hotel is half a block away.)

Bring stuff for the kids to do for several hours. Take lots of pictures, in the last half hour before the parade gets there, sing carols and get everyone around to sing too. This builds the excitement and puts you in the right mood. Don't start too early though, or everybody will lose interest, and you'll inevitably have an awkward moment when everybody gets tired and stops singing before the parade approaches.

Don't cross the parade route for food or drinks: I took my oldest daughter this year to a Dunkin donuts we found online, across the route while my wife stayed with the other kids. It was plenty early, more than an hour and a half before the parade was rolling through. I found out really quick that the NYPD believe in securing the scene early and well. They have approximately 4 million cops blocking and barricading every conceivable route from point A to point B. It was only by the grace of God, and a little dodging and weaving on our part, that we made it back to our crew. I felt like Indiana Jones sliding through the closing door when we finally made it back.

10ft,

Great report and tips. I worked as a security guard at the New Haven Macy's during my college years. We "volunteered" to work crowd control at the parade and our store was assigned 78th Street at Central Park West. The Museum of Natural history occupied one side of the block and the other side had stores at ground level and apartments above (refer to Seinfeld episode for a visual). This was the block they use to layout and inflate the giant balloons.

Very much a party atmosphere for the civilians; we just tried to keep from freezing. We were there from midnight to 10 AM as the parade kicked off and all the balloons were cleared out. 10 hours at time-and-a-half was worth the pain and I could always catch up on my sleep at the family gathering in Connecticut later that day.

Lots of the acts don't work the whole parade route; they jump in closer to the store and save themselves a couple of miles of travel. If you go, figure out what you want to see and make a good vacation of it.