Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade: Hundreds of thousands brave coldest thanksgiving in over a century for annual New York spectacle

Hundreds of thousands of people have turned out to see the colourful balloons and floats at the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Spectators braved one of the coldest Thanksgivings in New York since 1901 with temperatures reaching -6C.

This year’s parade featured Spongebob Squarepants, Charlie Brown and other giant balloons that flew just a few feet above crowds.

Performers included Rita Ora, Leona Lewis, Diana Ross and Ashley Tisdale.

Greg Heffley from the "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" series balloon passes by windows of a building (AP)

The parade featured about 8,000 marchers, including high school bands from across the country and two-dozen floats culminating with the arrival of Santa Claus.

Tony Stout camped out with his family from 2am in order to get a good view of his son, who was in the parade with The Ohio State University marching band.

Rita Ora performs at the Macy's thanksgiving parade (Getty Images)

They travelled from Columbus, Ohio for the parade.

He said: “Ohhh, I'm freezing and numb, but excited."

Dylan Mahoney, who has come to the parade every year for the last dozen years, said he stayed warm by layering up, including wearing several pairs of socks.

A float hovers above the crowd during the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan (Reuters)

"It's one of the coldest," he said, but "we've watched in the rain before."

He said he loves the tradition of attending the parade, driving from Leonia, New Jersey, in the early hours to see the bands and balloons and racing for a good spot.

Thursday was New York City's coldest Thanksgiving since 1901, when the temperature only got as high as 26F (-3.3C). The coldest on record was in 1871, when the warmest it got was 22F (-5.5C).

Thursday has the potential to be New York City's coldest Thanksgiving since 1901 (AP)

The Macy's parade didn't start until 1924.

New York City has issued an extreme cold weather alert and is urging anyone going outside to wear hats, scarves, gloves and layered clothing and to keep their fingertips, earlobes, and noses covered to prevent frostbite.

Balloon technicians are seen laying down sand bags over the Ronald McDonald balloon (EPA)

Police Commissioner James O'Neill said thousands of officers would be stationed along the parade route. They included counterterrorism teams with long guns, plainclothes officers mixed in with the crowd and a new squad of K-9 teams that can sniff out explosives from a few hundred feet away.

The parade runs 46 blocks from the west side of Central Park to Macy's flagship store in midtown Manhattan.

Additional reporting by AP.