Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and Balloon Inflation Viewer's Guide

One of the things on our list of 100 things to do with your kids in NY before they grow up is to watch them inflate the giant balloons for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. If you want to go this year, here's some tips for seeing the balloons, plus the best place to find a spot for the actual parade and news about the new parade route:

They inflate the Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons outside of the American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving. They start at 2 or 3pm and work until 10pm. You should enter at 77th St and Columbus. If you want to get there when the TV news cameras are there, head over around 6:00pm. It really is kind of weird and magical to see the characters "come to life."

I'm not going to lie, going to see the balloons get inflated can be hit or miss. Expect tons of crowds and the possibility of not getting to see much. Reader Mabel shares her strategy:

We try to get there around 3pm. There are usually no lines around that time. Most of the balloons are flat, but we wander up and down the block and watch as they prepare the balloons. By 4pm at least one balloon is up. It does get crowded very quickly. By 5pm last year there were long lines for pictures with characters (Spongebook, Michelin Man, Dora.)

Also, I got a great tip from my friend, Jonathan, last night on how to see the giant Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons up close without the crowds of the inflation station. After the parade is over the balloons are taken off to the side streets around 34th St at Herald Square to be deflated. By this time everyone is tired from standing around for 6 hours for the parade and it's over: People don't hang around to watch the balloons get deflated. You can watch the giant balloons eerily shrink without the mobs that come to see the balloons get inflated the night before. Let me know if you try it.

If you want to actually see the parade on Thanksgiving Day, know that it is going to have a new route this year. As always, the Macy's parade will begin at 77th St and Central Park West, but at 59th St it will veer east and go down 7th Avenue rather than it's traditional route down Broadway. From 42nd to 34th Streets it will move further east to 6th Avenue then travel back to Herald Square. I still recommend trying to stake out a spot on Central Park West in the 60s. The further you are from 34th Street, the better off you'll be crowd-wise.