More than one million people lined the streets of New York to celebrate its annual Thanksgiving parade today.
Pavements were packed as holidaymakers waved and cheered.
The Macy's parade is a 75-year-old tradition but this year police and firefighters are being honoured. Organisers say it is the largest ever inflatable parade, beating London's Millennium parade.
The parade started with a float representing the Statue of Liberty, and included police and military marching bands as well as giant balloons of popular cartoon characters.
Security was tight at the show, which snakes its way past New York's Central Park, down Broadway and through Times Square to end outside Macy's, the city's flagship store.
Hundreds of police lined the route, while private security personnel were also called in to help.
The show passed without incident and in ideal weather, with thousands of the spectators having travelled from across the US for the celebrations.
The parade is a traditional highlight of the Thanksgiving celebrations, the US's biggest public holiday after Christmas.
Schools, offices and shops close and public transport grinds to a halt as families gather for roast turkey, sweet potatoes and pumpkin pie.
But work at the site of the collapsed twin towers continued uninterrupted, with workers being given a turkey dinner while they toiled in the debris.
American soldiers overseas were also continuing as normal, with those on board aircraft carriers being given special dinners. There was, however, no let-up in the bombing campaign against Afghanistan.
PA