Culture / History

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — which took place last week — is a huge event Americans every single year. According to CBS News, “approximately 50 million viewers tune into the parade from home each year. Another 3.5 million revelers head to the streets of New York City to watch the parade in person.” To put that into perspective, around 17.7 million people watched the NBA Finals this year. All this to say: The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is by no means “getting old” and people aren’t getting tired of it.

Even with a recurring set of balloons, some of which that have been around for years, Americans around the country (and in New York City) love to tune in and watch them. Luckily for anyone who really loves the event, a set of infographics about the history of the parade was just released by Treetopia. With so many fun facts about it, here’s a round-up of the most compelling ones.

2 floats are introduced each year on average, and in total 136 new ones have been added to the parade over the years.

2015 was the year when the most new floats were introduced — 10.

This year, the temperature broke records for being a brisk 19 degrees, but the coldest years of the past were 1947, 1976, and 1984.

The total cost of putting on the parade ranges from $11.6 million to $13.4 million each year.

The cost of filling a balloon with helium is around $510,000.

The average life of a balloon in the parade is 8 years.

Each balloon is entered by a sponsor, and they pay $90,000 to have theirs included. This doesn’t include the construction cost of the balloon, itself.

 

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade has been going since 1924 and shows no signs of stopping. For anyone who loves it, this is great news. Each year it’s a spectacle and has something new to offer.