--- title: Here's What It Takes to Put On the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade description: How many balloons? MONEY tells you just how much of everything goes into hosting the country's most popular Thanksgiving parade. authors: - name: Alexandra Mondalek url: https://money.com/author/alexandra-mondalek/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 44 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/amondalek former_staff: true published: '2015-11-25T16:04:02.000Z' modified: '2024-04-16T08:18:34.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - cost - event - holiday - parade - Spending - Thanksgiving word_count: 342 canonical: https://money.com/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2015/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Santa Claus attends the 88th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade outside Macy's Department Store in Herald Square on November 27, 2014 in New York City.](https://img.money.com/2015/11/151124_em_macysparade.jpg) For 89 years, Macy's Inc. has hosted an annual Thanksgiving parade in New York City. More than 3 million people line the route every year to watch, while ten times that number view the three-hour broadcast on television. Hard numbers are tough to come by—Macy's doesn't disclose costs—but there are plenty of fun facts and stats about how many floats, people, and hours go into making the production happen. Here are a few that you can use to impress your uncle Ralph at the Thanksgiving table. **17** The number of giant character balloons, four of which—Ice Age's Scrat and his acorn, Angry Birds' Red, Sinclair Oil's Dino, and Ronald McDonald—are [new](http://parade.com/438704/alison-abbey/the-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-rolls-out-4-new-balloons-see-them-now/#gallery_438704-4) this year **$190,000** Cost of a first-time balloon, according to [one estimate](http://mentalfloss.com/article/29284/how-are-balloons-chosen-macys-thanksgiving-day-parade) **40 tons** The weight of sandbags holding down balloons **90 minutes** Length of time needed to inflate the balloons **300,000 - 700,000 cubic feet** The amount of helium needed to inflate the balloons **7 hours** How long it takes to inflate the parade's balloons in front of the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side of Manhattan **90 people** The average number of people it takes to handle each of the parade's balloons **1,100** Cheerleaders and dancers from around the country **1,304 miles **Distance the "610 Stompers" dancers will travel from New Orleans to be in the parade, the farthest of any performing group **1,000** Clowns **10,000** Marchers **4,000** Macy’s employee volunteers **2.5 miles **Length of parade route visible to the public **$2 million** The amount [spent](http://www.businessinsider.com/what-are-the-macys-balloons-made-of-2015-11) on costumes **$207 - $690** Price of grandstand [tickets](http://www.bigstub.com/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-tickets.aspx?event_id=2677710) on the secondary market. Grandstand tickets are otherwise not for sale to the general public, instead reserved for friends and family members of parade participants. **$1,100 **Per-night cost for the 3-night Thanksgiving package at Marriott's Times Square hotel **$178 **Average price of AirBnB listing in NYC on the day of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade **$69.99 **Cost of a "Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Musical Water Globe" available for purchase, the most expensive commemorative parade item the company is selling this year [![Best college education image](https://content.money.com/wp-content/themes/money2018/img/college-site-banner-01.png)](https://best-colleges.time.com/money/search-colleges/?xid=cm-mcpTop200Widget) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2015/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Live Events", "item": "https://money.com/live-events/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Here's What It Takes to Put On the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2015/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2015/", "name": "Here's What It Takes to Put On the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2015-11-25T16:04:02.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2015/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/macys-thanksgiving-day-parade-2015/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-04-16T08:18:34.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "Here's What It Takes to Put On the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2015/11/151124_em_macysparade.jpg", "width": 2100, "height": 1400, "caption": "151124_EM_MacysParade" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alexandra Mondalek", "url": "https://money.com/author/alexandra-mondalek/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/alexandra-mondalek/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/amondalek" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2015-11-25T16:04:02.000Z", "description": "How many balloons? 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