17 Photos from the Thanksgiving Day Parades of the 90s and 2000s

John Summers • Contributor

Nov 11, 2025 8:00 PM EST

Nothing screams "holiday season in America" quite like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade - giant cartoon balloons, overenthusiastic marching bands, and the occasional slightly traumatized child staring up at a massive Pikachu floating between skyscrapers. These 17 photos capture the magic (and mild chaos) of the parades from the 90s and 2000s, an era when Saturday morning cartoons ruled the world and every balloon looked like a pop-culture fever dream.

Pikachu soaring over Times Square, Rugrats riding CatDog, Spider-Man making his heroic crawl above the crowds - it was pure joy on helium. But not everything went smoothly. I personally remember, During the 1997 parade, Bart was one of several balloons caught in high winds, reportedly tearing apart and causing minor injuries when it hit a streetlight. It wasn't quite Armageddon, but it was chaotic enough that parade safety rules got much stricter afterward.

Still, there's something magical about those old parades. The world felt simpler, the floats looked cooler, and the characters were ones we actually cared about. So here's a little trip back to the golden age of balloon mayhem, where the streets of New York belonged to superheroes, cartoon icons, and one very unlucky Bart Simpson.