NEW YORK — Delighted, shrieking children were barely able to contain themselves Thursday as Barbie rolled past and enormous Shrek and Snoopy balloons floated overhead in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Unseasonably warm weather, with temperatures around 60 degrees, helped draw hordes of families to the parade route to see the floats, helium balloons, marching bands and roller-blading clowns.
Five-year-old Lauren Geiger of Freeport, N.Y., had no problem ticking off her favorite Macy’s parade characters: Dora the Explorer, Shrek and Scooby-Doo.
“And we’re going to see Santa. Did you know that?” said her mother, Dorothea Geiger, eliciting a squeal.
In Detroit, drizzle, snow and temperatures in the 30s didn’t deter thousands of people from lining up to watch that city’s America’s Thanksgiving Parade.
Some spectators took their eyes off the parade to gawk at a dog in the crowd dressed as Santa Claus, complete with a red, tasseled cap.
“Last year, she was Minnie Mouse,” said the dog’s owner, Shelita Porter, 33. “I think of her as my child. And she enjoys her clothes. When I pull her clothes out, she knows it’s time to go.”
The parades were among Thanksgiving Day rites nationwide that also featured football, including Detroit’s NFL game between the Lions and the Green Bay Packers, and family dinners with too much food on the table.
At the Salvation Army’s annual Thanksgiving Day dinner in Oklahoma City, holiday music wafted from a stage as dozens of volunteers clad in red Salvation Army vests moved from table to table with trays of sliced pies or escorted new arrivals to their place at a table.
“I love Thanksgiving. I love this event,” Salvation Army spokeswoman Heide Brandes said Thursday. “You have the people who are the haves, and you have the people who are have-nots. And this brings them together,” she said.
This year’s Macy’s parade, the 81st, offered a mix of new attractions and longtime favorites, solemn tributes and lighthearted spectacle.
About 10,000 participants, many of them holding down the buoyant balloons, followed the parade route down the west side of Manhattan’s Central Park, then down Broadway through Times Square to the Macy’s store on Herald Square. The lineup included three new balloons, 2,000 cheerleaders, 800 clowns and the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes.
There were 11 marching bands, including the Virginia Tech Regimental Band, playing in honor of the victims of last spring’s campus shooting.
“The whole experience is special,” said Rich Piasio of Wilmington, N.C. He and his wife wore Virginia Tech sweat shirts as they waited for the band.
