Tips for Seeing Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

I’ve been living in NYC for over four years now and finally made it to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade this past year. It’s one of those things I think everyone should experience once in their lifetime and it’s a fun way to kick off the holiday season.

We did a lot of research before going so we were fully prepared for the morning. My friend and I brought lawn chairs, snacks and water to sip on.

Every blog post about the parade says to arrive early, so we did just that. An early morning wake up call got us to midtown at 5:45 am.

We chose to sit on 6th Ave between 46th and 47th outside McDonalds. Luckily there was a police barrier there so we sat right next to it and didn’t have people fully surrounding us.

We sat in our lawn chairs, ate breakfast and waited patiently for the parade to start. Around 9:30 am, the parade got to us and thanks to our spots right by the barrier, we saw everything with no issues.

Once we started to see Santa round the corner onto 6th Ave, we knew the parade was ending and we left for the nearest train station to beat the inevitable crowds.

Hopefully my experience helps you enhance yours! Just remember to arrive early and try not to drink much water because there are no bathrooms available during the parade.