The parade featured the traditional balloons and floats, and Santa Claus on a Christmas-themed float brought up the rear.

The Detroit parade is the second largest behind the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York in terms of its viewership and the number of people going to see it in person — an estimated 1 million in Detroit last year, Michaels said. “We want to get Detroit on this big national map, and we’ve worked very hard to do that," he said.