Macy's Sunny the Snowpal Astronaut Balloon Is Just Adorable in the Thanksgiving Day Parade 2018

By Tariq Malik
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Macy's is going out of this world for Thanksgiving this year, with a truly adorable astronaut balloon making a debut in the 2018 Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City. 

Called Sunny the Snowpal, the astronaut snowgirl is the star of Macy's holiday window display, where she travels the cosmos to help Santa fix his sleigh in time for Christmas. Earlier this week, I took a peek at Sunny's adventures while walking by the Macy's storefront on the way to Space.com's headquarters. Check it out below. [Thanksgiving in Space! How Astronauts Celebrate]

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Any space-age store display will capture my attention, but what's exciting about Sunny's space adventure are the interactive elements Macy's installed. You can fly Sunny through an asteroid field, for example, and several windows sport buttons to active features in the displays. 

So if you're watching the parade this Thanksgiving, don't miss Sunny's cosmic debut. And if you're in New York City this holiday season,  Sunny's space adventure is a definite must-see for space fans young and old!

Happy Thanksgiving to all from the Space.com team!

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow him @tariqjmalik. Follow us @Spacedotcom and Facebook. 

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Tariq Malik
Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.