NEW YORK (WPIX) – Some real characters are getting ready for next week’s holiday activities in New York City.
Six new balloons and seven new floats will appear in this year’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. As big as the floats are, they also must be small. Their big move is the day before Thanksgiving when they travel from New Jersey to Manhattan.
“They all can reduce to about the size of a city bus. We transport them from New Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel to our starting line on Central Park West,” said Kathleen Wright, the director of production operations at Macy’s Studios.
New faces to the 2024 parade include Wednesday and Pugsley from the Netflix series “Wednesday.” From the look on their faces, they could be the anti-Thanksgiving day float.
Sculptors spent 100 hours creating the figures and their disapproving features.
Dora the Explorer is in a better mood. She’s all smiles as flowers bloom. The Bronx Zoo float has models of life-sized animals on parade.
Pasta Knight celebrates pasta night. Rao’s Homemade has fun with noodles and hosts a first-ever fire-breathing dragon on the float. Look for the elbow macaroni talons and the rigatoni pony with an angel hair pasta mane.
Brandan Kennedy is the director of creative production for Macy’s Studios. He said it takes six months to a year to create the floats and balloons.
“There are 3.5 million people on the street watching in New York City and nearly 30 million at home. We are trying to tell a story as quickly as possible and let everybody have a good time,” Kennedy said.
The first parade was in 1924. It was canceled twice during World War II. This is the 98th annual event.
