Every year I watch the parade, and I swear that I just don't feel like my Christmas holiday has started off right until I see the great and all-giving Santa Claus himself wrapping up the festivities.
I don't know what it is about the balloons that still hold a sense of wonder for me, as they have ever since I was a kid. Maybe they are a sort of helium-filled countdown timer for me, ticking away the morning of Thanksgiving day, leading to the official kick-off to th greatest timne of the year. Or maybe I just like giant, floating cartoon characters.
Either way, here are my top 5 favorites from this year...
Sadly, there was no Snoopy in this year's parade, but the inclusion of everyone's favorite blockhead, who is shown determined to finally kick that football, completely made up for it.
When I was 6 years old, I got an amazing stuffed Kermit for Christmas and loved him dearly. Seeing this balloon reminded me of that.
I don't know if any of you out there have read these books, but I have and I loooooooooooove them! Greg Heffley is one of the greatest characters ever written. I'm totally not joking. Congrats to him for making the big time.
I don't care who knows it. I have loved the Smurfs my whole life. Watched the cartoon every Saturday and collected tons of Smurf figurines as a kid. And Papa Smurf is the grand patriarch of it all.
Do I really need to go into why he's on this list? Exceslior!
I agree with your picks... Though I feel the need to point out the pickings were kind of slim this year. I mean, it's not like anyone was going with Cruise-Line Advertisement Mickey as their #1... I'm not going to bother watching anything before 10:00 next year. Broadway can go hang. It felt like my eyes were bleeding after that bit from the Elf show. How bizarre was it seeing Chris Isaac lip synch Great Balls of fire? I was excited to see the Ninja Turtles float... And then it was completely taken over by... Was it Screaming Trees? What happened to the days when the Masters of the Universe used to kick the crap out of each other in the street?
ReplyDeleteNo kidding! That hour of Broadway tunes was horrible and I agree with you on the Elf scene. It was like a high school play written by the students. And yeah, the balloons weren't exactly a grand display. Still, I managed to find 5 I liked.
DeleteNeon Trees, actually. Guess I'll be the lone loser who admits to liking them. They have a very 80s sound to them, which I love, and I thought it was cool that each of the band members represented the different colors of the TMNT's masks. I enjoyed the performance--though it was obviously a missed opportunity for Vanilla Ice.
DeleteI don't mind the band either (should've googled the name before posting)... They remind me a lot of The Strokes early on, but they had nothing to do with the float(just as all the other floats had nothing to do with their performers), and I would have loved to see the new TMNT better showcased. It would still have been an advertisement, true, but I hate how the whole parade has been boiled down to a "here's a float with someone singing on it... now here's a balloon, now here's another singer..." formula.
DeleteNever read the Wimpy Kid stuff...
ReplyDeleteI was kinda hoping for a big Jabba the Hutt
ReplyDeleteHa! That would RULE!
DeleteI was a closet Smurf fan too.....I had the PVCs and a couple of stuffed ones. Kept me grounded.
ReplyDeleteNo closet for me. I was right out in the open. Got beat up a lot for it, too. ;)
DeleteWhat's funny is I really disliked the show as a kid. It was never that exciting to me... and it always signalled the end of my Saturday morning viewing because they put it dead last. But I DESPERATELY wanted to buy the toys. I wanted a whole smurf village and everything. No idea why.
DeleteI guess am a savage because i really don't care for the Thanksgiving Parade but some of those floats are cool.
ReplyDelete