PHOTO ESSAY BY DONNA ACETO | As has been the case since 1924, New York City’s Holiday Season kicked off early Thanksgiving morning with the annual Macy’s Parade. More than 8,000 participants — accompanied by dozens of balloons and floats — marched the two and a half miles from Central Park West and West 77th St. south to Central Park South, east to Sixth Ave., and then south again to 34th Street, where the parade turned left for its finale at Herald Square.
With crowds turning out as early as the evening before, when the balloons are inflated, the event attracted enthusiastic throngs and featured, among many celebrities fictional and real, Patti LaBelle, Jimmy Fallon, hip-hop artist Common, Charlie Brown, and, of course, Santa, signaling the parade’s conclusion.
