Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 2010

The 2010 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC will off at 9:00 AM on Thursday, November 25, bringing with it 8,000 participants. Starting at 77th Street and Central Park West, the parade will head south to Columbus Circle, turn to Central Park South before making a right turn to march down 7th Avenue to 42nd Street.

The Macy s Thanksgiving Day Parade will then turn east toward 6th Avenue where it will march down the Avenue of the Americas. At 34th Street, the parade will make its final turn west marching in front of Macy’s Herald Square.

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was known as the Macy’s Christmas Parade. But then, leave it to a department store to get an early jump on the holiday season. Thursday marks the 84th edition of the popular procession, and some 3.5 million people will line the streets of the city to catch of glimpse of the bands, the balloons and, if he’s not too busy tweeting angry things to Matt Lauer, Kanye West. We checked in with Bob Grippo, author of “Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade,” for a geographical tour of the march’s storied history. This is the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade’s New York.

The parade began here before making its way down to 34th Street. In subse-quent years it was shortened, moving the start to 110th Street, and ultimately to 77th Street in 1946, where it still kicks off today.

The first parade consisted of some 300 Macy’s employees marching with two dozen animals borrowed from the local zoo, including camels and elephants. The live beasts, however, frightened children, and after three years, they were replaced by balloon animals.