The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada is a large meal, starring a large roasted turkey. All of the dishes in a traditional Thanksgiving Dinner are made from foods native to North America, the Pilgrims having received these foods from the Indians.

Thanksgiving Day Celebration Articles:

2006 Thanksgiving Day Date | A Hallmark Thanksgiving - Free eCard | Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade | Thanksgiving | Thanksgiving 2006 | Thanksgiving Arts and Crafts for Adults | Thanksgiving Arts and Crafts for Kids | Thanksgiving Arts and Crafts for Kindergarten | Thanksgiving Card | Thanksgiving Crafts | Thanksgiving Date | Thanksgiving Day! | Thanksgiving Day 2006 News and Info | Thanksgiving Dinner | Thanksgiving Gift | Thanksgiving Point, Utah | Thanksgiving Prayer | Thanksgiving Recipe Ideas | Thanksgiving Turkey | Thanksgiving Wallpaper

Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, usually the "Macy's Day Parade" in informal contexts, and originally the "Macy's Christmas Parade," is an annual parade presented by Macy's Department Store. The three-hour event is held in New York City starting at 9:00 a.m. EST Thanksgiving Day on NBC.

In 2006, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the first parade, Macy*s began a coast-to-coast "Parade on Parade" interactive tour on September 6th in Detroit, as Macy*s officially bacame a nationally branded department store chain. The interactive tours includes a school for balloon flying, dressing as a clown, float escort or balloon handler, a musical revue on how balloons are made to fly, a "Miracle on 34th Street Theatre" among other activities. It is scheduled to conclude the day before the parade (November 22) at the annual Balloon Inflation at the Museum of Natural History at Central Park West, but the final official stop will be December 5 in Atlanta. It plans to also have the first "Macy*s All American Band" made up of high school band members from all 50 states.

Parade Route

* The Parade starts at the American Museum of Natural History, on 77th and 81st Sts. at Central Park West. It heads south alongside Central Park. The balloons are held close to the ground, to avoid trees and crosswinds as much as possible. At Columbus Circle (on the southwest corner of Central Park), the parade turns onto Broadway.

* At this point, the balloons are raised to their full height. The Parade continues southeast, through Times Square, to the Macy's building at Herald Square (where Broadway intersects with 34th St. and the Avenue of the Americas).

* There's a right turn onto 34th St, and another right onto 7th Ave, where the balloons and floats are taken down and packed up.