Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2011 and Balloon Inflation Tips

Watching the giant balloons get inflated for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is really special. There's a reason that it's on our list of 100 things to do with your kids in NYC.

If you want to attend this awesome spectacle, we've got tips for the best spots and times to catch the balloon inflation. (We've gone many times!) Also, if you're planning on watching the actual Thanksgiving Day Parade, we've got the most up-to-date information on the route and advice about how to watch the parade pass by, even if you don't stake out a spot at dawn.

Balloon Inflation
Wednesday, November 23 3-10pm
Start at Columbus Avenue and 79th Street
Over the years, this has become a pretty huge event in and of itself. It's really cool, but for the best experience you need to time it right. Thousands of people crowd the streets surrounding the American Museum of Natural History to witness Spider-Man, Kung Fu Panda, Kermit the Frog and other favorites come to life. This year, new balloons include Blue Sky Gallery: Tim Burton’s B, the Aflac Duck Balloonicle (really), Paul Frank's monkey Julius, and the return of Sonic the Hedgehog.

For the best balloon inflation experience, get there as early as possible and wait. My son and I used to go around 2:30pm, but now that he's in school until 3pm, we usually arrive around 4pm—along with everyone else. This event is mobbed so don’t expect to stroll down the streets. Instead, you're herded into a procession that starts at West 79th Street and Columbus Avenue, and circles the museum. You can download the inflation map in advance on Macy's site.

Since it is so packed, tots in strollers and grade schoolers who can deal with crowds do best. The preschool set often gets fussy, especially when there's not much to see or do, which unfortunately is sometimes the case with the balloon inflation. If you want to go with friends, be sure to travel to the site together or meet a few blocks away. It's impossible to meet up once you're in the fray. Trust me, I have tried.

If this sounds like too much for you, there's another way you can see the balloons up close. Jonathan, a friend of Mommy Poppins herself, advises that after the parade is over, the balloons are deflated on the side streets around 34th Street and Seventh Avenue. So you can watch those giants shrink without the mobs.

85th Annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
Thursday, November 24 9am-noon
Starts at 77th Street and Central Park West and ends at Herald Square
You've got to get up really early if you want to find the perfect parade watching spot... or do you? Well, if you want to be right in front, yes, you must rise with the birds. But my family and I have watched the parade from the streets numerous times and even walked in it twice, and we don't get up at dawn. We simply meander across town to see how close we can get. We always see something and honestly, all my son cares about are the balloons, and they're so big they're visible even from a block away. Last year, we snagged a great, relatively uncrowded spot just one block north of the parade route at the corner of Sixth Avenue and 43rd Street. If you want to have a view of everything, you're going to have to stake out your spot around 6:30am (really), maybe even earlier. In that case, we we recommend hitting Central Park West in the 60s. The further you are from 34th Street, the better off you'll be crowd-wise. Of course, if you know someone who lives or works on the route, start bribing them now.

The 2011 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will kick off at 77th Street and Central Park West, and then travel downtown to Central Park South, where it turns and heads east to Seventh Avenue. The procession continues down Seventh Avenue to 42nd Street, where it turns east to Sixth Avenue, and then down to Herald Square. The Macy's website has a detailed map of the route. This is the last year the parade will go this way; in 2012 it will move to Sixth Avenue.