A winter storm system headed our way may put the kibosh on the big character balloons flying in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday—which makes Wednesday's balloon inflation even more special. This may be our only chance to see new balloons, like Astronaut Snoopy and Spongebob Squarepants with Gary!
The tireless parade team will start inflating balloons at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, November 27th, around the American Museum of Natural History. The 16 character balloons include Olaf from Frozen (and Frozen 2), Chase from Paw Patrol, and Pikachu, and there are also dozens of other novelty balloons, like the new balloon from Yayoi Kusama, Love Flies Up to the Sky, which Macy's says was was inspired by "face motifs in her My Eternal Soul series of paintings."
If you want to go watch the balloons take shape, here's how: enter West 73rd Street at Columbus Avenue, and then walk north along Central Park West to West 77th Street, where you work your way around the perimeter of the museum.
Crowds are generally more manageable earlier in the afternoon, but the downside is that not as many balloons are inflated.
As for whether the balloons will be unleashed to greet Thanksgiving Day parade enthusiasts, Macy's and the NYPD will make that call right before the parade (which starts at 9 a.m. on Thursday). The big character balloons will be grounded is there are sustained wind conditions of more than 23 mph and wind gusts of 34 mph.
