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If, on the night before Christmas, not a creature was stirring, the eve of Thanksgiving sees quite a different scene—especially in Central Park, where the likes of Snoopy, Pikachu, and even the Pillsbury Doughboy are taking their first breaths of helium, expanding into friendly giants and rising from the ground before they float down the city’s storied avenues to great fanfare as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day.
Over the course of its 100 years, the parade has become as much a part of Thanksgiving as turkey and pumpkin spice—and for the last 25 years, specifically, it’s been photographed by E.A. Kahane, who claims one of the best seats: a third-floor window on Central Park West, where the balloons practically knock against the glass. Her vibrant new photo book, Come Join the Parade!, documents the fleeting pomp, pageantry, and slightly surreal beauty of this beloved tradition with 160 photographs and is out now.
Kahane’s relationship with the parade began in 1997, the year she moved into her apartment overlooking the iconic route. “From my third-floor window feels like you can just reach out and touch the balloons,” she says.
Every Thanksgiving morning, Kahane turns her home into a lens to the world outside, snapping shots of everything from balloons that eclipse the sun to her living room windowpanes, smudged from the children who have pressed their noses against them. “Each year feels like the first time,” she says. “I never plan. I just let the excitement of the parade unfold and bottle it up in my camera.” On the cover of her book is Kermit the Frog, hovering over his handlers, who are dressed in the fully froggy hue—in this case, it is easy being green.
Her work captures not just the parade’s epic scale but also its intimate, human moments: children on their parents’ shoulders, the synchronized steps of a marching band, and the palpable awe of spectators.
The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade began in 1924, when employees at Macy’s department store decided to celebrate the holidays with a grand spectacle. The inaugural parade featured floats, clowns, live animals borrowed from the Central Park Zoo, and, of course, Santa Claus bringing up the rear.
But it wasn’t until 1927 that the iconic helium balloons made their debut, replacing the live animals (a relief, one imagines, for both parade organizers and the elephants). Felix the Cat was the first to take to the skies, and he was soon joined by a menagerie of characters, from Mickey Mouse to Popeye. Over the decades, the balloons have grown bigger and more elaborate, becoming stars in their own right.
Take Snoopy, for example. In essays accompanying her photos, Kahane examines the larger cultural significance of the parade’s many characters. Snoopy became NASA’s official mascot for aerospace safety in 1968; Astronaut Snoopy appeared in the 2019 parade to honor the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. Kahane’s shot of the space-bound beagle floating triumphantly down Central Park West is among her favorites—just one example of the parade’s ability to reflect the times while keeping its whimsical spirit intact.
The tradition has endured even as the Macy’s Parade faced challenges. During World War II, the parade took a three-year hiatus as rubber and helium were redirected to the war effort. In 2020, the COVID pandemic transformed the parade into a largely virtual event, with no live crowds and pre-recorded segments replacing the usual fanfare.
For Kahane, the absence of the parade that year made her treasure her images even more. “I spent so much time reliving the 2019 parade—the joy, the energy, the balloons. It reminded me how much this tradition means to New York and beyond.”
When asked to pick a favorite float, Kahane hesitates, but only briefly. “I’d have to pick the Lego float, The Brick-Changer, from 2023,” she says. “My son, Harry, has loved Legos since he was a child, and seeing that float brought back so many memories.”
Lego, it turns out, is a parade favorite for a reason. The Danish company debuted its first float in 2019, featuring a phantasmagoric creature part turkey, part dragon, built from over 2,000 giant Lego bricks.
And then there’s Santa. Always Santa. From the parade’s earliest days, the jolly man in red has been its grand finale, his float a signal that the holiday season has officially begun. “Santa and his reindeer are my first memory of the parade,” Kahane shares. “They’re iconic, and seeing them still fills me with the same excitement I felt as a kid.” Kahane’s photographs of Santa over the years tell their own story, each capturing a unique moment in time.
For Kahane and her family, the parade is just the beginning of a day filled with tradition. After the last float has passed and the guests at her breakfast party have dispersed, she and her husband, Bill, pack up and head to their Hudson Valley home, where a Thanksgiving feast and a Champagne toast await. “It’s a bit of a mad dash,” she laughs, “but it’s become one of our favorite holiday rituals.”
Yet even with her book complete, Kahane will be at it again with her camera in position tomorrow morning—there’s no stopping tradition.
