The 6abc Boscov's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an annual Thankgsiving Day parade held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, currently sponsored and aired by WPVI-TV.
The parade is billed as the oldest Thanksgiving Day parade in the country, having started in 1920. Like other parades of its type, it features balloons, floats, high school marching bands, and celebrities. When the parade first started out it was called the Gimbels Thanksgiving Day Parade. It was called this because Ellis Gimbel, one of the founders of Gimbels Department Stores, wanted his toyland to be the destination of holiday shoppers everywhere. He dressed up over 50 store employees and sent them out on their first thanksgiving day parade. Another big part of the parade was seeing Santa Claus arrive. This tradition still occurs today.
When Gimbels shut down operations in 1986, Boscov's (a Reading, Pennsylvania-based family owned department store) and WPVI (which generally uses "6abc" in its programs and promotions) took over sponsorship, hence today's name.
In 2004, the parade celebrated its 85th anniversary with special new balloons and floats. There was also a special opening number and tribute to all of the stars who have been in the parade in the past to celebrate the big 85th parade. In 2005 the parade had the most stars in the parade's history as well as more new balloons than before, with 8 of them being new.
In 2007, the parade presented the first parade float with an ice rink on it, used by Disney's High School Musical: The Ice Tour.
The 6ABC/Boscov's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the oldest Thanksgiving Day Parade in the nation.