This is the 16th Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade that Amy Kule '87, has worked on and her second as executive producer.

Amy Kule '87 led the parade last year with the outgoing executive producer. This year she'll walk the route with Al Roker.

This year marked the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. Kule cut the ribbon at the start of the parade with children whose father's died in the attacks.

The Spiderman balloon has enough webbing throughout to stretch a half a mile.

There are 10,000 performers and volunteers in the parade.

Hundreds of marching bands apply, but only 10 are chosen by a special committee that pores over the videos and applications from all over the country.

The parade route has changed a few times, but it always ends at Macy's flagship location in Herald Square.

This year, Macy's placed miniature elves in all of its stores and encouraged people to paint them and send them back. They held a vote on Facebook, and the winning design was turned into a full-sized balloon that will fly in this year's parade.

Every year, for the last 85 years, Santa Claus is on the last float to come down the parade route, kicking off the holiday season.