UPPER WEST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) — The day before Thanksgiving, there are two holiday traditions: blowing up the parade balloons, and having the Eyewitness News reporters’ children report on all the excitement.

That honor once again went to Jacob Einiger this year! He lived on the Upper West Side with his father Josh.

The stars of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade came to life on Wednesday, before their epic journey on Thursday.

“I love the Wimpy Kid guy, and I love the minions. Honestly, they’re all really cool. I love the Bluey and the Minion,” said Mila and Kian Puri.

Judging from the crowd’s reaction, the Minion seemed to be the favorite.

No one likes inflation, but everyone likes balloons.

Kathleen Donohue Wright of Macy’s Studios is in charge of setting it up. She told Jacob that it is not easy.

“We start our production for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 18 months in advance. Assembling one of these balloons takes several months,” she said. “We start with a pencil sketch of what the balloon looks like, a quick scribble in a notebook and then it ends up looking like this today.”

The first parade was 100 years ago, but it is only the 98th parade. During World War II they had to skip some to save helium.

They really have to think of everything.

The balloons are not the only attraction during the parade. More than two dozen floats had to be “decapitated” to get through the Lincoln Tunnel on Wednesday morning.

Nothing has ever gone wrong during the parade – at least not in our lifetimes – and there’s a reason for that.

While meteorologist Lee Goldberg says there should only be a light breeze, police are keeping a close eye on whether all the balloons are behaving. Some of them are £25,000!

“It’s Mother Nature’s great unknown. If she’s going to throw big gusts of wind at us… sustained winds,” said Lt. Keith Gallagher of the NYPD Emergency Service Unit. “We’re going to get two readings. We’re going to call ahead for those wind speeds and we’re going to make corrections before the balloon goes into that potential danger area.”

But there was no danger here in blowing up the balloon on West 77th Street.

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