How Macy’s, a department store chain founded when Abraham Lincoln was alive, established America’s the biggest parade of the year

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade attracted more than 31 million viewers across the United States last year, including about 3.5 million people who already lined the streets of New York City to watch it in person. But this annual tradition came not from some corporate strategy, but from an idea that Macy’s employees brought directly to the company’s leadership more than a century ago.

To understand how a department store that opened when Abraham Lincoln was an ordinary citizen created the most-watched holiday parade in America, one must first understand Macy’s extraordinary origins and why the company’s immigrant workers saw the parade as the perfect way to celebrate.

Messi’s humble beginnings

Roland Hussey Macy opened his dry goods store on the corner of Sixth Avenue and Fourteenth Street in Manhattan on October 28, 1858.

His first day sales totaled just $11.08.

Abraham Lincoln was still two years away from becoming president, having recently delivered his famous “House Divided” speech. Macy, a former Nantucket whaler whose red star tattoo from his sailing days would become the company’s logo, finally found a formula that worked after four previous failed attempts at retail. But business picked up, and by 1924, Macy’s had moved to Herald Square and grown into the largest retail space in the world.

In that year, a large percentage of Macy’s workforce was composed of first-generation European immigrants. According to Susan Tercero, executive producer of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, “There were a lot of people who worked for Macy’s who were immigrants from Europe, and when they got to the holiday season, a lot of them got together and reached out to the leadership and said they really wanted to celebrate the holidays in a way that was more in keeping with what they did in Europe, which is these holiday parades. Of course, Macy’s said sure.”

Macy’s leadership approved the proposal, seeing it as a gift to employees and a marketing opportunity to increase holiday shopping traffic.

Macy’s First Thanksgiving Day Parade

On November 27, 1924, Thanksgiving morning, the first show began. Nearly 10,000 people participated, including Macy’s employees dressed as clowns, cowboys, horsemen and other characters, along with floats depicting Mother Goose scenes, circus acts, professional bands and live animals on loan from the Central Park Zoo.

The parade traveled six miles from Harlem to Herald Square, where Santa Claus arrived on a sleigh made of ice, signaling the official start of the Christmas shopping season. An estimated 250,000 spectators lined the streets, far exceeding organizers’ expectations. Macy’s immediately declared it an annual tradition

By 1927, concerns arose that live animals were scaring children. Macy’s turned to Tony Sarge, a German-American puppeteer who had previously designed the store’s mechanical window displays, to devise an alternative. Sarge created what he called “inverted marionettes”—giant helium-filled balloons controlled by manipulators on the ground rather than strings from above. Felix the Cat became the first personal airship, launching a concept that would define the show for the next century

In 1953, NBC began broadcasting the show nationally, transforming it from a New York spectacle into an American ritual seen in homes across the country. The 98th annual show last year attracted a record 31.3 million viewers across NBC and Peacock, making it the most-watched entertainment program on American television outside of sports.

You can watch the 2025 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the company’s 99th parade, with the 100th arriving next year, below.

​For this story, luck Use generative AI to help with the rough draft. An editor verified the accuracy of the information before publication.