If, on the night before Christmas, not a creature was stirring, the eve of Thanksgiving sees quite a different scene—especially in Central Park, where the likes of Snoopy, Pikachu, and even the Pillsbury Doughboy are taking their first breaths of helium, expanding into friendly giants and rising from the ground before they float down the city’s storied avenues to great fanfare as part of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day.
Photograph by E.A. Kahane
Photograph by E.A. Kahane
Over the course of its 100 years, the parade has become as much a part of Thanksgiving as turkey and pumpkin spice—and for the last 25 years, specifically, it’s been photographed by E.A. Kahane, who claims one of the best seats: a third-floor window on Central Park West, where the balloons practically knock against the glass. Her vibrant new photo book, Come Join the Parade!, documents the fleeting pomp, pageantry, and slightly surreal beauty of this beloved tradition with 160 photographs and is out now.
Kahane’s relationship with the parade began in 1997, the year she moved into her apartment overlooking the iconic route. “From my third-floor window feels like you can just reach out and touch the balloons,” she says.
Photograph by E.A. Kahane
Photograph by E.A. Kahane
Every Thanksgiving morning, Kahane turns her home into a lens to the world outside, snapping shots of everything from balloons that eclipse the sun to her living room windowpanes, smudged from the children who have pressed their noses against them. “Each year feels like the first time,” she says. “I never plan. I just let the excitement of the parade unfold and bottle it up in my camera.” On the cover of her book is Kermit the Frog, hovering over his handlers, who are dressed in the fully froggy hue—in this case, it is easy being green.
Her work captures not just the parade’s epic scale but also its intimate, human moments: children on their parents’ shoulders, the synchronized steps of a marching band, and the palpable awe of spectators.
Photograph by E.A. Kahane