2023 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade stream: Watch live balloons, bands, celebrities, Santa

Aaron A. Bedoya, El Paso Times
·2 min read

Beloved characters like Snoopy and SpongeBob SquarePants will take to the skies above New York City while bands march along the streets below as the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade ushers in the holiday season.

The parade will be held Thursday, Nov. 23 from 6:30 a.m. to 10 a.m. MT and will go on, rain or shine. You can watch it in the embedded video at the top of the page.

This will be the 97th time the parade has been held since 1924.

Thanksgiving Day parade route

Thursday's parade starts on Manhattan's Upper West Side and makes its way alongside Central Park in front of big crowds and a national television audience before ending up in front of Macy's flagship store on 34th Street.

Macys Thanksgiving Day Parade channel

The broadcast is hosted by Savannah Guthrie, Hoda Kotb and Al Roker from “Today” and airs on NBC.

Macys parade lineup

Among the big names performing is Cher, who just released her first Christmas album. The Oscar-, Emmy- and Grammy Award-winner has a prime spot — performing just before the arrival of Santa Claus, which marks the end of the parade.

Other celebrities and musical groups taking part include Jon Batiste, Bell Biv DeVoe, Brandy, Jessie James Decker, Pentatonix and Miss America 2023 Grace Stanke. The parade also includes performances from the casts of some Broadway shows.

More: Stores open on Thanksgiving in El Paso include Albertsons, Whole Foods

New balloons debuting this year include Leo the lizard, a character from a Netflix film, who is more than 40 feet (12.5 meters) tall, as well as ones that have been there before — like SpongeBob, coming in at 44 feet (13.4 meters).

Some characters, like Snoopy, have been in the parade for many years, but this year's balloon is a new Beagle Scout Snoopy version — celebrating the 50th anniversary of his first appearance in the Peanuts comics.

Associated Press and USA Today contributed to this report.

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade live: livestreaming 2023 holiday event