The 90th annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade takes place on Thursday and will see the return of America's favorite balloons and floats this Nov. 24, 2016. The parade is scheduled to last for three hours, and is expected to attract more than 3.5 million Thanksgiving Day partygoers to Manhattan in New York City, as well as more than 50 million viewers on TV.
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2016 has a scheduled start time of 9 a.m. ET, and will continue on until about noon. The festivities will be hosted by NBC's Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie and Al Roker.
For those who cannot make it to New York City for the parade this year, fear not, as the entire parade will be broadcast nationwide on TV on the NBC network, from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. across all American time zones. A live stream of the parade can also be watched online on NBC.com.
THE PARADE ROUTE The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2016 will start from Central Park West and 77th Street, and work its way southwards down Central Park West. It will then cut across to 6th Avenue and continue southwards
PERFORMERS This year will see the Radio City Rockettes bring their thrilling performances to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. The casts of various Broadway shows will also be performing, including the cast of "Holiday Inn" and "Hairspray Live!"
CELEBRITIES There will be a host of celebrities joining the festivities, including Olympic gymnast Laurie Hernandez, Tony Bennett, Aloe Blacc, De La Soul, Sandra Lee, Sarah McLachlan, Regina Spektor and 12-year-old "America's Got Talent" winner, ukeleleist and singer Grace VanderWaal.
BALLOONS This year's parade will see 16 giant oversized balloons of everyone's favorite characters traveling down the streets of Manhattan.
All of the balloons at this year's parade were prepared at the Macy's Parade Studio in Moonachie before being transported to New York City.
This year will see characters from the upcoming movie "Trolls" as well as from the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". Charlie Brown will make his return to the parade this year, and others will be Red from Angry Birds; Elf on the Shelf; Scrat from "Ice Age"; Hello Kitty; the Red Power Ranger; Ronald McDonald; Thomas the Tank Engine and SpongeBob SquarePants.
