Philadelphia’s Thanksgiving Day Parade brings thousands to Ben Franklin Parkway for the annual holiday tradition

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The 106th 6abc Dunkin’ Thanksgiving Day Parade made its annual trip through Philadelphia with plenty of floats, music and sounds.

According to 6abc, 14 helium balloons, 1,000 singers and dancers and more than 30 musical performances paraded down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

America’s oldest Thanksgiving parade served as the gathering point for many families including sisters-in-law Jessica and Robin Price.

For Jessica, this is her first parade since she moved out of the city. Having gotten to see it from her balcony apartment on the parkway in years past, it was a bit of a change to watch it from ground level, she said.

“We would like scope it out, you know, 8 o’clock, see who’s out there, and then when it started filling in, we’d be like, ‘Run, run, run,’” Jessica said. “We would bring all our chairs out and get a good spot, but this year we had to drive in… A different experience commuting in, but still worth it.”

Robin spoke with WHYY News about what it was like growing up watching the parade on TV, to now being able to bring her daughter to the annual tradition.

“It’s fun to make new traditions,” Robin said. “I think we’ve been out here like four or five times… Seeing my daughter see it and build new traditions, she might do it when she gets older and has kids and it’s really cool to have these traditions every year.”

Many attendees were already in the Christmas spirit before the parade ended, including Scott Simmons, who came dressed as The Grinch. While it’s still unclear if his heart grew three sizes on Thursday, Simmons made sure to interact with anyone who wanted a photo with him on the parade route.

“The police officers, they had me up against the car, put handcuffs on me,” he said sarcastically. “The kids love it. I try to interact with them as much as they can, make it fun.”

With temperatures peaking at 45 degrees according to 6abc, Thursday ended up being the coldest Thanksgiving since 2018 when temperatures dipped to 33 degrees.While tens of thousands were on the Parkway for the parade, more than 81 million people across the country will travel at least 50 miles from home over the Thanksgiving holiday period, according to AAA.