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Kicking off Thanksgiving Day for the 99th time, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade will wind its way through the streets of Manhattan with its blend of floats, bands, Santa Claus and the larger-than-life character balloons.

Designed and built in-house by artists and engineers with Macy's Studio, each year's balloon lineup captures a mix of classic and new characters in pop culture and entertainment. Balloons vary in size but can exceed the length of a couple of school buses.

The 2025 parade will feature five new characters among an array of 34 balloons. Classic video game icons PAC-MAN and Mario join Buzz Lightyear from Pixar's "Toy Story" franchise, Derpy Tiger from Netflix's "KPop Demon Hunters," and the onion carriage with eight characters from DreamWorks' "Shrek" movies.

In past parades, balloons have included Mickey Mouse, Uncle Sam, Underdog, Dora the Explorer, Kermit the Frog and many others. The decisions on what characters get the giant-balloon treatment are made with a mix of internal conversations and partnerships with studios and agencies that own the characters.

How are the Macy's parade balloons made?

From initial character design to its final flight test on Balloon Day, production of a character balloon can take anywhere from six to eight months and involve as many as 30 people. Floats featured in the parade follow roughly the same production time.

In the case of the Spider-Man balloon − a version that made its debut in 2024 and is based on the style of comic book artist John Romita Sr. − the design phase began in late January 2024 and continued through early the following May, when production and assembly began. The balloon had its first test flight in September 2024.

During a balloon's design phase, artists present a number of possible poses and styles for the character, all with an eye toward the balloon's aerodynamics and maneuverability with the handlers.

Once the sketches are complete, the studio's balloon and engineering department reviews the poses to ensure the character can move as a balloon.

After design changes have been approved, the studio makes a 24- to 30-inch 3D "white model" of the balloon, which is then used to create the patterns that make up the full size balloons. Once the patterns are done, they're flattened out and digitally printed. Like a giant quilt, the durable fabric sections − including the public-facing outer pieces and the internal chamber walls that hold pockets of helium − are stitched together by hand. The sections are then assembled into the whole balloon.

Once that balloon is assembled, artists do a final pass over the balloon, adding character features, shadowing and other details. The balloon is then ready for a battery of indoor and outdoor test flights, plus inflation and deflation testing.

When fully deflated, an average character balloon weighs 500 to 700 pounds − roughly the weight of a baby grand piano. The Spider-Man balloon weighs about 640 pounds when deflated.

But the principles that can lift that kind of weight work exactly the same way as a small helium birthday balloon on a string − only with a lot more helium (large balloons can exceed 10,000 cubic feet of helium). Helium is lighter than air, and the filled balloons displace heavier air to create lift. Handlers on the ground guide the balloon with tethers.

How big are the Macy's parade balloons?

Balloons range in size and shape, depending on the character and the pose created. The PAC-MAN balloon debuting this year is more than 37 feet tall − roughly as tall as a three-story building − and nearly 39 feet wide, about the width of six taxicabs.

Spider-Man is longer, measuring 77½ feet front to back, or nearly the length of two standard New York City transit buses.

What is the parade route?

On Wednesday − the day before the parade − crews begin inflating and staging the balloons between 81st and 77th streets around the American Museum of Natural History. At 8:30 a.m. Thursday, after a ribbon-cutting, the parade begins a 2½-mile route south along Central Park, east on 59th Street to 6th Avenue. From there, the parade heads south to 34th Street, where it turns west for its final performance for the national NBC telecast in front of the historic Macy's entrance.

This year marks the 99th parade. The event was canceled from 1942 to 1944 during World War II, when collection drives called for materials − like the rubber used in producing the balloons − for the war effort.

SOURCES Macy's Studio; Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade Wiki

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Macy's Thanksgiving parade reveals new balloons. Here's what to know.

Reporting by Stephen J. Beard, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect