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Minnie and Mickey Mouse are seen on a Walt Disney Float during the Thanksgiving Day Parade in Philadelphia, November 22, 2018. Thousands of spectators turn out along the Ben Franklin Parkway in downtown Philadelphia for the 6ABC Dunkin’ Donuts Thanks <\/p>\n
PHILADELPHIA<\/strong> – The nation\u2019s longest-running Thanksgiving Day parade brought thousands of people to Center City early Thursday, as families from across the Delaware Valley lined the streets to celebrate a 106-year tradition filled with floats, balloons, marching bands and holiday cheer.<\/p>\n What they’re saying:<\/p>\n Crowds erupted with shouts of “Happy Thanksgiving!” as high school and college bands made their way down the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.<\/p>\n “My favorite part of the parade is the marching bands,” Louis Wongus, a North Philadelphia native said. “I like seeing the different marching bands and drums from the different schools perform.”<\/p>\n For many, the parade is more than seasonal entertainment \u2014 it\u2019s a lifelong family ritual.<\/p>\n “I\u2019ve been coming every year since I was a little kid,” Pete Esposito of Northeast Philadelphia, who planned to wrap up his holiday with a large family dinner, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Few can match the dedication of Andy Curry of Ridley Park, who was overcome with emotion talking about his 58 years attending the parade.<\/p>\n “Nothing like it. Nothing like family,” Curry said. “My daughter was 2 years old when I first brought her. Now she\u2019s 60.”<\/p>\n This year\u2019s crowd included some unique guests \u2014 including costumed turkey dogs and even a chicken.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s turkey day. People love chickens, what can I say?” one participant said. “We\u2019ll give the turkey one day.”<\/p>\n Among the younger spectators was Sullivan DiSalvo, a toddler far more interested in the FOX29 microphone than the floats.<\/p>\n “He wants to do the interview,” his mother, Jessica DiSalvo, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The holiday spirit extended well beyond the parade route, with fans breaking into spontaneous Eagles chants ahead of Philadelphia\u2019s Black Friday game against the Chicago Bears.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I\u2019m not getting any younger \u2014 I need to see at least two more parades,” Cheryl Staquet of Downingtown, who has been attending for nearly four decades and hopes the Eagles give the city another championship, said.\u00a0<\/p>\n As always, the parade ended with cheers for Santa Claus \u2014 who, it turns out, may be an Eagles fan himself.<\/p>\n “Oh my goodness, you wouldn\u2019t believe how many people wanted another Super Bowl this year,” Santa Claus told FOX29, adding that his Eagles hat may make him “even more popular this year than ever.”<\/p>\n With Santa\u2019s arrival, Philadelphia officially ushered in the holiday season \u2014 and the countdown to Christmas began.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Source:<\/b> Information from Jeffrey Skversky’s report.\u00a0<\/p>\n Holidays<\/a>Philadelphia<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"article Minnie and Mickey Mouse are seen on a Walt Disney Float during the Thanksgiving Day Parade in…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":413423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,7709,50,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-413422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-holidays","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115634500600582046","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}