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Vote of the week: Your favorite holiday parade?

2007-11-22

By Robert Niles: Time for a little holiday showdown: which is the better holiday parade, Macy's Thanksgiving Parade in New York City, or New Year's Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif.?

Yep, there is a theme park connection here: A version of the Macy's Parade also runs through the holiday season at the Universal Orlando Resort, and Disneyland often has a float in the Rose Parade, where Mickey Mouse served a grand marshal a few years back. (Disneyland's not on the participant list this year, though.)

It's Thanksgiving week in the U.S., which might tip votes toward Macy's, but the Rose Parade holds the home-court advantage on TPI, as the site's HQ lies three blocks from the Rose Parade route.

(Note: I'm not including Disney World's Christmas Parade among the choices, since it is no longer broadcast live. What you now see on ABC Christmas morning is a canned special, taped weeks in advance.)

more at twiigs.com...

Explain your vote in the comments, please.

Readers' Opinions

From Matthew Baker on November 23, 2007 at 3:10 AM
Seeing both are top priority. But Macy's, by a few hairs. To me it represents and conveys the holiday season in a sense (Thanksgiving through Christmas), and kicks it off. On the other hand the Rose Parade wraps up the Christmas season, which can be bittersweet depending on how good a season I had. Rose Parade comes out on top for artistry though. Macy's tends to have a lot of reruns.
From Cynthia Damiano on November 23, 2007 at 9:44 AM
The Rose Parade has so much more class...I do watch the Macy's on TV every year and would like to see it in person, but as for a way to bring in the beauty and hope for a New Year, you can't beat the Rose Parade. Beautiful floats, wonderful uplifting themes, competition between the artists, fun bands and great horse units that connect the past into our present. I have been to the parade many times and have seen the exhibition of the horses as they enact their particular abilities, such as jousting, square dancing, precision gaits. It's not all the pop singers and Broadway shows and same balloons...every year is new and fresh. I'd prefer they didn't do away with all those roses and flora, but they do smell yummy up close...you can go view them up close after the parade...
From Ann Morton on November 23, 2007 at 11:37 AM
I wish Disney would put a theme park in Branson. If they could acquire Celebration City it would be great. They do not know how to run the park. (Disney has the know how). They have Silver Dollar City and can barely handle that. It would be great if they would put resorts here like they have in Florida it would be super. There is some land available around Celebration City they could purchase to expand. I think they would do great in Branson. "THE ENTERTAINMENT CAPITAL OF THE USA". Everyone has wondered why they haven't already woke up and seen the lights of Branson. It would be better than any parade.
From Robert Niles on November 23, 2007 at 11:58 AM
The overt commercialism of the Macy's parade has always put me off. It's one thing to promote a film or book, but promoting a department store always left me cold.

The balloons are spectacular, but just floating there alone, they lack any drama or context, too.

That said, the Rose Parade is really slipping. The floats remain gorgeous, but the parade is not reaching out to new sponsors who might inject some life into the parade. Where are the Yahoo and Google floats? Why can't the parade get more studios involved, creating floats to promote their films? The Star Wars stuff last year was great. Too bad it wasn't in the parade 25 years earlier. Where's Harry Potter?

The biggest problem with the Rose Parade, however, has always been its lack of conclusion. Macy's heralds the arrival of Santa Claus. The Rose Parade offers nothing to wrap it all up at its end, just a swarm of tow trucks, honking.

All this said, I'll take SoCal on Jan. 1 over New York in late November every time.

From Anthony Murphy on November 23, 2007 at 11:25 PM
I have been to the Disney World Parade. Its in case that it starts pouring on the day of the Parade. That wouldn't look good on TV. Lets face it, its alot more common for it to rain in FL than in CA
From Danny Melillo on November 24, 2007 at 3:38 PM
I was at the Macy's this year! The Rose parade is decent but not as good IMO

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