Chicago Thanksgiving Parade

About This Event

Chicago's Thanksgiving-morning parade is exactly what you'd expect — floats, marching bands, giant balloons up State Street from Ida B. Wells Drive to Randolph, three hours starting at 8 AM, free to watch from the sidewalk. It's the kind of event where showing up an hour early isn't optional if you actually want to see anything past someone's shoulder.

It's older than its current name suggests. The parade started in 1934 as a Christmas parade — State Street Council president Walter Gregory pitched it to Mayor Edward Kelly as a way to lift spirits and boost holiday retail sales during the Depression, and the first one rolled down State Street on December 7 that year, Santa Claus in the lead car. McDonald's signed on as sponsor in 1984. The parade itself didn't actually move to Thanksgiving Day until 1999, and wasn't formally renamed the 'Thanksgiving Parade' until 2002 — so while the tradition traces back 92 years, it's only been a Thanksgiving-morning fixture for about a quarter of that.

Worth knowing if you're planning around it: State Street closes to traffic for the route and surrounding blocks well before the 8 AM start, so budget extra CTA and walking time, and the good curb spots along Ida B. Wells to Randolph fill in early — this isn't a show-up-at-8:05 kind of event if you want an actual view.