About a month apart from each other, the Macy's and Rose Parades are as much a part of many families' holiday celebrations as Pumpkin pie and pork roast. Both offer a slice of entertainment during the annual festivities of Thanksgiving and New Year's Day. Each features bands, floats and other marching attractions. Yet from there on their styles differ a lot, according to climate, types of attractions and layout. Which one is superior?
One may compare the two events on many separate levels. The viewer is given two extremes as far as location: frosty New York and sunny California. Then there are the types of floats. The Thanksgiving parade focuses heavily on either A.) the iconic balloon variety or B.) those that consist of fabricated, colorfully displayed vehicles made of various materials. The Rose Parade, on the other hand, flaunts the long-standing tradition of plant-based floats covered in floral and vegetative array, and made to look near-life-like. As far as climate and atmosphere, the Rose Parade wins the top award. According to a Thanksgiving Day weather forecast, the temperature at the 2014 Macy's Parade was projected to be roughly 30 degrees, although meteorologists said it felt more like 10 degrees. Talk about cold turkey! Comparatively, at 56 degrees and sunny--still abnormally chilly for Pasadena, California-- the Rose Parade offered a much more comfortable viewing experience this year. In terms of floats, personal preference determines which is better, but as far as creativity goes, as long as I'm judging, the Rose Parade again surpasses the Macy's Parade. Both types of floats take hours of painstaking labor, of course. But the fact that the creators make the beautiful Rose Parade floats entirely out of natural materials is quite impressive and unique.
Equally impressive is the Rose Parade's entertainment style. Unlike the New York parade the Pasadena event remains true to parade integrity. What does that mean? Over the years, the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade has become increasingly commercialized, focused on advertising for singers and Broadway shows. Consequently, the event contains an unappealing lack of action and movement--unknown artists singing mawkish, unrelated tunes and sleazy entertainers traipsing around onscreen, while in the interim giddy reporters interview actors off-scene from the parade. Such a presentation lacks the freshness and flow of a real parade. The Rose Parade doesn't suffer from this problem. It's exciting and simple. Viewers can see each group walking by without interruption, and without all that fuss! The commentators are entertaining, not overbearing. Of course, the fact that there aren't any commercials (thanks to the parade's sole broadcaster HGTV) is a extra special bonus. From the Miracle Grow garden float to the roster of local and national high schools that participate annually the Rose Parade is both refreshing and family friendly.
So is the Rose Parade the ultimate holiday march? Overall it is. In my personal opinion it is. But is there anything superior about its Thanksgiving rival? How about history? Once again, the Rose Parade wins the prize, with New Year's day 2015 marking 126 years since its beginning, according to the "Tournament of Roses" website. By contrast, History.com reports Macy's Parade having been a Thanksgiving tradition since 1922, or just 92 years. However, 3 million spectators lined the streets of the big apple to watch New York's all-american festivity this year, while only one million turned out for California's January first extravaganza. Therefore, the Macy's parade wins in one category: attendance numbers. Nevertheless, more people doesn't necessarily mean a better parade experience, so we can't saw whether this statistic really earns a point in the Thanksgiving parade's favor. It is safe to say that the Rose Parade wins the competition! I know I enjoyed watching it today!
