Macy’s Inflation Celebration November 30, 2025

 After attending the last seven Macy’s Day Parades I decided it was time to do something different. I had never seen the Macy’s Inflation Celebration the day before the parade, so off we went. My NY Historical membership got us six tickets to a special viewing area adjacent to the Museum. And it turns out – it was a lot of fun. The Macy’s Inflation Celebration is an event that has been held on Thanksgiving Eve since the 1990s. The event features inflation teams and Parade officials prepping the giant balloons, for the following day’s parade. For the Parade’s earliest inflation ceremonies, the balloons were normally inflated in the wee hours on Thanksgiving morning in Harlem. Starting in the 1930s, the smaller balloons were inflated the night before and were loaded onto trucks, while the larger balloons were inflated mere hours before the Parade’s kick-off. When the Parade route was shortened in 1945, the balloon inflation was moved to the Upper West Side. Over the years, the inflation would start the night before the Parade, and would draw a small number of local New Yorkers each and every year. Starting in 1994 they decided to make the balloon inflation an annual event open to the public, so that fans of the Parade could see the behind the scenes of the Parade. Nowadays, it is held at 77th Street and 81st Street between Central Park West and Columbus Avenue.