Pictures: Thanksgiving Day parade in New York
- Published

More than three million people have taken to the streets to watch New York's Thanksgiving Day parade, in a city still recovering from super storm Sandy.

The annual extravaganza featured marching bands, performers and floats but it's the huge inflatables which always steal the show.

Giant balloons soon stretched the length of 6th Avenue, one of New York City's main streets.

Loads of kids, like three-year-old Reagon, were definitely impressed by the big parade.

And of course what classic American parade would be complete without cheerleaders?

They were joined by hundreds of other cheerleaders who all lined the streets twirling their batons.

Even Santa Claus took time out from his busy festive schedule to put in an appearance.

These children seemed keen to convince Father Christmas that they have been good this year.

Even the police are big fans of the parade, which is watched by around 50 million Americans on television every year.

Parades were also held in cities like Chicago, Detroit and Philadelphia, where this T-Rex balloon looked like it was about to gobble its own Thanksgiving meal.

In the New York borough of Queens, volunteers served Thanksgiving dinner to people whose homes had been badly hit by super storm Sandy.