The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was held on November 27, 1924, in New York City. It was called “Macy’s Christmas Parade” and was designed to spur Christmas shopping. Macy’s held the parade to celebrate the opening of what it called the “World’s Largest Store”—more than 1,000,000 square feet (93,000 square meters) of retail space that occupied a full city block in Midtown Manhattan. That first parade drew a significant crowd with some sources suggesting 10,000 spectators attended and others putting the figure at 250,000. It featured live animals from the Central Park Zoo, along with floats of childhood favorites, such as Little Miss Muffet and Little Red Riding Hood. Santa Claus made an appearance in front of Macy’s store, at the endpoint of the parade.
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