Before all of the cooking and football watching starts, it’s fun to gather around the TV in pajamas to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. This year, the 90th Parade will begin at 9am on Thursday, November 24th, and the entire Nickelodeon family will have our eyes glued to the screen!

Here are some lesser-known facts about the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, by the numbers:

• 174 giant character balloons have appeared in the parade since 1927.
• The 2016 parade will have 16 giant character balloons, 24 novelty balloons, balloonicles, balloonheads, and trycaloons, 26 floats, 12 marching bands, 1,100 dancers, and 1,000+ clowns.
• The SpongeBob SquarePants balloon is 34 feet wide and he wears a 6-foot-wide jingle bell and a holiday hat with 5 feet of fur trim. That’s one giant sponge!
• This will be SpongeBob’s 11th year in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
• The TMNT Float is 3 stories high and depicts rooftops, fire escapes, city window ledges, and a zip line down the wires of telephone poles. Sounds gnarly!
• 5.5 miles: The length of the original Parade route, which started at 145^th Street and ended at 34^th Street and Herald Square.
• 78 feet: The length of the longest balloon in this year’s Parade: the Red Mighty Morphin’ Power Ranger.

Tags: SpongeBob SquarePants, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Events & Recreation