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Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Wiki
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Wiki
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Balloons

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Some of the most popular balloon characters over the years have included Big Bird, Pikachu, SpongeBob SquarePants, Kermit the Frog, Snoopy, Garfield, Ronald McDonald, Grogu, and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Balloons are the signature elements of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The giant helium balloons generally measure several stories in size, and depict characters from pop culture, such as cartoons, films, comic strips, video games, and advertising icons. The first balloons were introduced by Tony Sarg for the 1928 Parade, serving as a replacement for the live animals, who had previously appeared in the Parade but frightened child attendees. Sarg, being a puppeteer, imagined the balloons as "upside-down marionettes," with participants handling the balloon by a series of handling lines as it makes its way down Broadway.

Every Macy’s Parade balloon combines artistic design with aerodynamics and engineering. Ballooning experts, the Macy’s team in collaboration with consultants calculate and perfect the balloon’s aerodynamic design. Once a flight-worthy balloon concept has been approved, it moves onto a 3D-printed model (previously sculpted with clay). This step helps the team create a physical blueprint from which the balloon will be built. From there, giant reams of polyurethane fabric will be patterned, cut and sealed together to create multiple chambers, which ultimately produce the character’s head, body and limbs. Once the balloon has been created and painted to the exact specifications required of the character, it will undergo many tests including indoor and outdoor flights, inflation and deflation tests, and final touch-ups before its inaugural flight in the Macy’s Parade.

The first manufacturer of the balloons was the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, headquartered in Akron, Ohio, who produced balloons between 1928 and 1980. Kemp Balloons, Inc. then took over creation of the inflatable giants until 1983. In 1984, Sioux Falls-based Raven Aerostar began constructing balloons for the Parade and would do so for several decades until 2019, when the Macy's Parade Studio took over full-time construction of the balloons alongside with Signs & Shapes International.

Balloons have since been split into several categories; giant character balloons (balloons that require 5,000 or more cubic feet of helium, generally depicting pop-culture characters), Novelty/Heritage balloons (balloons that require less than 5,000 cubic feet of helium, generally depicting generic objects and recreations of historic Macy's balloons ); Balloonicles (a balloon figure powered by a vehicle inside the balloon, introduced in 2004); Balloonheads (an inflatable character head attached to a costume worn by the performer, introduced in the 1930s but later reintroduced in 2003); Trycaloons (balloon figures riding on bicycles, introduced in 2011); and Floaloonicles (part-float, part-balloon-part, vehicle, introduced in 2021).

Following is a list of giant balloons that have appeared in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade over the years, ordered in their debut years.

1920s introductions[]

1928[]

1929[]

1930s introductions[]

1930[]

1931[]

1932[]

1933[]

1934[]

1935[]

1936[]

1937[]

1938[]

1939[]

1940s introductions[]

1940[]

1941[]

1945[]

1946[]

1947[]

1948[]

1949[]

1950s introductions[]

1950[]

1951[]

1952[]

1953[]

1954[]

1956[]

1957[]

  • Popeye by Associated Artists Productions

1960s introductions[]

1960[]

1961[]

1962[]

1963[]

1964[]

1965[]

1966[]

  • Superman (2nd Version) by National Periodical Publications
  • Smokey Bear (1st Version) by General Electric Company/The Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention Program/Macy's/United States Department of Agriculture - Forest Service

1968[]

  • Snoopy (1st Version) by United Media

1970s introductions[]

1971[]

1975[]

1977[]

1980s introductions[]

1980[]

1982[]

1983[]

1984[]

1985[]

1986[]

1987[]

1988[]

  • Big Bird (1st Version) by Children's Television Workshop/Jim Henson Productions/Sesame Workshop
  • Quik Bunny by Nestlé
  • The Pink Panther by MGM/United Artists Communications Company/MGM-Pathé Communications/Metro Goldwyn Meyer/MGM
  • Snoopy & Woodstock (3rd Version) by United Media

1989[]

1990s introductions[]

1990[]

1991[]

  • Babar by Nelvana Limited & The Clifford Ross Company

1992[]

1993[]

1994[]

  • Barney (1st Version) by The Lyons Group/Lyrick Studios/HiT Entertainment
  • The Cat in the Hat by Random House Publishing/Esprit de Corp

1995[]

1996[]

1997[]

1998[]

1999[]

2000s introductions[]

2000[]

2001[]

2002[]

2003[]

2004[]

2005[]

2006[]

2007[]

2008[]

2009[]

2010s introductions[]

2010[]

2011[]

2012[]

2013[]

2014[]

2015[]

2016[]

2017[]

2018[]

  • Goku (1st Version) by Funimation/Toei Animation

2019[]

2020s Introductions[]

2020[]

2021[]

2022[]

2023[]

2024[]

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ↑ A second balloon of Mickey debutted in 1972, and two additional versions were made in the 2000s, one portraying him as a bandleader and the other depicting him as a sailor.
  2. ↑ smaller Little Pigs Balloons were seen behind practical Pig in 1935 footage
  3. ↑ A second balloon of Donald was introduced in 1962.
  4. ↑ Superman's balloon was redesigned into the "Football Player" balloon in 1941. Superman later returned with a new balloon in 1966, then a third balloon of the character - one of the largest to ever appear in the parade- was used in the 1980s.
  5. ↑ After the original was retired, a second balloon of the character was launched in the 2000s.
  6. ↑ Widest balloon in parade history
  7. ↑ Originally appeared as a falloon in the 1990's
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