Macy’s 100th Thanksgiving Day Parade brings a record 100 balloons and Underdog’s return

The Olaf balloon passes spectators at the 2018 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. Photo: Phil Roeder / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0

The 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade will fly a record 100 balloons and other inflatables over Manhattan on Thursday, Nov. 26, Macy’s said as it released the full lineup this week.

The parade steps off at 8:30 a.m. and runs 2.5 miles from the Upper West Side to Macy’s Herald Square on 34th Street. NBC and Telemundo carry it live until noon in every time zone, with streaming on Peacock and an encore on NBC at 2 p.m. ET/PT, according to the company’s Nov. 13 announcement.

For millions of households the parade is the start of the holiday season, and this year’s version is built around its own history. The first march was in 1924. It skipped three years during World War II, which is why 2026, 102 years later, is the 100th.

The new balloons

Nine new balloons and inflatable elements join the lineup:

• Bluey, from BBC
• Buckaroo Bob the Minion, from Illumination
• Earl the Squirrel, from Universal Orlando Resort
• Hello Kitty Big Apple, from Sanrio
• Joe Cool & Woodstock, from Peanuts Worldwide
• Sorcerer’s Apprentice Mickey, from Disney
• Underdog, from DreamWorks Animation
• Billie Brightpaw, a bear designed in-house by Macy’s Studios
• Fuzzyeti’s Fur Wheel Drive, a “balloonicle” from Levi’s

Underdog’s return is the oldest callback. Macy’s said in its August countdown release that the reworked balloon will be his first flight since 1984.

Two other returns go back further. Felix the Cat, the parade’s first character balloon in 1927, comes back this year. He was carried along the route on sticks before helium balloons arrived the following year. And the Blue Hippopotamus, the one balloon never recovered after the 1931 parade when organizers still let balloons float away at the end, is also on the list. Macy’s said it would share details on the hippo’s role closer to the day.

Balloons from Macy’s Blue Sky Gallery series, designed with artists including Tim Burton, Keith Haring, Jeff Koons and Yayoi Kusama, will also be back.

Floats and performers

New floats include DoorDash’s Dashing All the Way, HBO’s Hogwarts Holiday, Planters’ Mr. Peanut Power Plant, Purina Dog Chow’s Salute to Service Dogs, GEICO’s Road Trip to Parade and Tony Sarg’s Amazing Marionettes, a tribute to the puppeteer behind the parade’s early balloons. A Macy’s All-Stars float will carry past favorites such as Bullwinkle, Popeye and Olive Oyl, Scooby-Doo and Sonic the Hedgehog.

Country singer Megan Moroney and Teddy Swims will perform at Herald Square. The float lineup includes Natasha Bedingfield, DEVO, Indigo Girls, Jimmy Fallon & The Roots, Queen Latifah, Leslie Odom Jr., Keke Palmer, Anthony Ramos and Smash Mouth, plus a Dolly Parton tribute led by Megan Hilty. Broadway performances will be announced later.

Ten marching bands are on the route, including the University of Alabama’s Million Dollar Band, the University of Illinois Marching Illini, UConn’s Pride of Connecticut, Hawaii’s Nā Koa Aliʻi Aloha All-State Marching Band and high school bands from Indiana, Tennessee, South Carolina and Texas. Macy’s said more than 11,000 volunteers and participants will be involved.

“For our 100th Parade, we’re creating a celebration of unprecedented scale,” Sharon Otterman, Macy’s chief marketing officer, said in the announcement.

Before Thanksgiving morning

NBC will air a documentary, “America’s Parade: 100 Years of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” on Friday, Nov. 20, at 9 p.m. ET/PT, with streaming on Peacock the next day. The network’s countdown special runs Wednesday, Nov. 25, at 8 p.m.

On parade day, Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker host NBC’s broadcast, and Telemundo’s Spanish-language simulcast is hosted by Andrea Meza, Aleyda Ortiz and Clovis Nienow. The NBC broadcast will also carry live audio description for blind and low-vision viewers on the SAP channel.

If the parade marks the start of your holiday shopping, it’s worth knowing that the FCC said this week online marketplaces have pulled 18 million listings for banned electronics. And if the season already feels darker earlier, that’s because the clocks fell back on Nov. 1. More holiday and weekend coverage is in our Lifestyle section.

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