Labubus and The Rockettes: A Macy’s Parade for Everyone

The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, originally named the Macy’s Christmas Parade, has been a beloved holiday tradition throughout the country ever since it was first televised in 1946. Excluding a three-year hiatus during World War II, the parade, which serves both as holiday entertainment and as an advertisement for Macy’s and sponsors, has been held in Manhattan every year since 1924, making this year’s parade the 99th parade held by the department store. Featuring 34 balloons, 28 floats, 29 performers and 20 marching bands and performance groups, this year’s parade was both a traditional and contemporary spectacle, which blended the interests of multiple generations to create a parade that was watchable for the entire family, drawing a record viewership of 34.3 million.

Over the years, the Macy’s Parade, a far cry from the first 1924 parade, which only filled two blocks and was comprised of Mother Goose floats, zoo animals and costumed Macy’s employees, has become reliant upon celebrity appearances and brand recognition. The parade now requires relevance in a rapidly shifting world of trends, necessitating a lineup of floats and performers that appeal to a younger audience and more contemporary entertainment interests. 

However, because the viewership of the parade largely ranges from 18-49, the lineup also has to simultaneously appeal to an older generation who may not be familiar with trends like the Labubu (immortalized in a new float) or the new “Gabby’s Dollhouse” film (whose protagonist first appeared in balloon form last year). Each year, the parade takes on the challenge of not only appealing to Gen X parents, but also their millennial and Gen Z children and their Gen Alpha grandchildren.

The parade, which opened with a performance from “Wicked” film franchise star Cynthia Erivo, certainly made strides to appeal to a Gen Z audience. While Erivo is popular among younger audiences for her role as Elphaba in the film adaptation of the 2003 Broadway musical and has become a familiar face in meme culture because of her expressive reactions and close friendship with co-star Ariana Grande, Erivo performed a cover of “Feeling Good,” a song that was popularized by Nina Simone in 1965. This opening blended contemporary entertainment and internet culture with classic 1960s jazz, appealing not only to the younger audience that knows Erivo as Elphaba, but to older audiences who may be familiar with the song. 

Also appealing to a younger audience, the parade featured performances from artists such as Conan Gray (performing a song from his appropriately named 2025 album “Wishbone”), Mr. Fantasy (the TikTok alter-ego of former “Riverdale” star K.J. Apa), Meg Donnelly (known for her role in the Disney Channel film “Zombies”) and the singing voices of EJAE, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami from the girl group HUNTR/X from the Netflix film “Kpop Demon Hunters.”. 

Also featured as floats were the aforementioned Labubu, decked out with the furry, sharp-toothed plushies that, earlier this year, became TikTok’s latest viral product, and a new Stranger Things float, complete with a Demogorgon puppet, which advertised the show’s fifth and final season, something highly anticipated by Gen Z viewers. For the youngest viewers, the parade included balloons and floats of popular cartoon and children’s entertainment characters like Bluey, Dora the Explorer, SpongeBob SquarePants, and a performance from the cast of Sesame Street on their “1-2-3 Sesame Street” float. 

Alternatively, the parade also included celebrities and performances that would resonate with an older audience. Artists whose work ranged in popularity from the ‘60s to the ‘90s also performed at the parade with notable appearances from Darlene Love, who performed her 1962 holiday classic “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” the 1970s R&B and funk band Kool & the Gang performing “Celebration,” Debbie Gibson, with her 1987 “Only in My Dreams,” Jewel with “You Were Meant For Me” which was released in 1996, and Busta Rhymes with a medley of his hits from the ‘90s and 2000s. 

These performances were accompanied by classic floats and balloons like the Tom Turkey, Snoopy and the Pillsbury Dough Boy. The parade also included classic Macy’s Parade traditions, like a performance from the Radio City Rockettes, who first performed at the parade in 1957, an abundance of clown troupes, and performances from Broadway casts which included the cast of “Just in Time,” which tells the story of 1950s musician Bobby Darin, and the revival cast of “Ragtime,” a musical which first opened on Broadway in the ‘90s. 

Although the parade’s attempt to bridge generations and appeal to a younger audience may be criticized by some as erasing the traditions of the past, the parade’s interest in modernity and relevance has also opened up the opportunity for more diversity. For many years now, the parade has included more diverse performances, with this year’s parade including dance troupes like Native Pride Productions, which has been a part of the parade for several years, this year featuring Shoshone dancers like George Abyeta and his grandson Ethaniel, performing traditional Indigenous dances in traditional regalia. Another dance troupe, Evidence, NYC-based and directed by Ronald K. Brown, combined traditional African dance with contemporary dance. In addition, La Banda de Música La Primavera, a Panamanian marching band from the Bilingual Educational Center of Santiago de Veraguas, became the first marching band from Central America to perform at the parade.

With each modernization and contemporary inclusion, Macy’s runs the risk of enraging or ostracizing its older audience, but without change, it faces irrelevance and disinterest from a new generation of shoppers. While Macy’s may never be able to please everyone, the viewership of this year’s parade reveals that Macy’s has survived another Thanksgiving season and suggests that the parade, which comes from a bygone era, continues to be appealing even amidst the rapidly shifting trends of the modern age.