Look up for Felix the Cat
Felix the Cat rode on sticks in 1927. He’s back for the 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York. Watch the people who bring him down the avenue.
Archive · 2025Inside this guide
In the Macy’s account of its 1927 parade, Felix the Cat came down the street on sticks. Volunteers carried the character above the crowd. The helium balloons came the following year. It’s a small distinction with a big payoff when you watch the parade now. Before the work was keeping a character from flying away, it was getting one off the ground.
Felix returns on Thursday, November 26, 2026, for the 100th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan. NYC Tourism names West 77th Street and Central Park West as the start and Macy’s Herald Square as the finish. Macy’s has announced an 8:30 a.m. broadcast start on NBC, Peacock and Telemundo. The figures overhead are the main reason to watch from the street. The people beneath them are the reason to keep looking once the balloon has passed.
The strings are underneath
Tony Sarg came to the parade from puppetry. A marionette usually hangs below the person giving it motion. At the parade, the people guiding the figure stand on the street and the figure floats above them. If you watch the handlers as a balloon goes by, you can see why the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry has treated these balloons as a subject for a discussion about puppets. A recognizable face at that size gets your attention. The relationship between the figure and the people moving it is what makes it a performance.
For the 100th parade, Macy’s has announced a float called Tony Sarg’s Amazing Marionettes, featuring a puppet likeness of Sarg alongside re-creations of his characters and illustrations. There’s a neat reversal in the tribute. The man who helped put characters in the air gets to travel at street level, as a puppet himself.
This is the 100th parade rather than the 100th year since the first one. Macy’s dates the first parade to 1924 and records three cancellations during World War II, from 1942 through 1944. The count follows the marches that actually took place. The old Felix story is from the early editions, while the Felix announced for 2026 follows a new version introduced at the 90th parade in 2016.
