New York was where I spent my first and last thanksgiving and where I was also celebrating my 21 st birthday on the same day. The biggest problem with the parade is that it was a very rainy day and the streets were full of people messing around with umbrellas and children crying. However, the parade itself was fantastic with giant inflatable cartoon characters and floats and music. This sort of parade puts any other parade I've seen to shame in terms of scope and size and crowds drawn. Manhattan is very different on Thanksgiving day in that a lot of streets are empty and there are a lot of people on only a few streets and the whole place is very quiet in comparison to the day before or after. The spectacle was worth coming to see and as Christmas shoopping really starts the following day it is worth coming to the parade, spednign thanksgiving in New York and then hitting the shops for the next couple of the days during the sales. I recoomend this for visitors from Europe especially to give you an idea of how important this holiday is to Americans and how much effort Macy's make to provide a good show.
