The turkey’s bathing in brine, the relatives are preparing their political arguments and the children are parked in front of the television, watching a larger-than-life Pikachu pursue a too-big-for-his-britches SpongeBob SquarePants. Since the first balloon debuted at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1927, balloon-spotting has been as much a Thanksgiving tradition as donning elastic-waisted pants. But those gargantuan rubber characters — which can require as many as 90 handlers, a number that still hasn’t prevented run-ins with lampposts and the occasional bystander injury — have been the source of nearly as much Thanksgiving drama as have dinner-table debates.

Below is a brief history of those balloons, from their helium-filled highs to their dangerous, windswept lows.

Read the article “A Brief History of the Balloons in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade” on time.com.