Here's what goes on behind the scenes of the famous Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, which reportedly costs millions to produce each year

Sarah Jacobs

Inside a warehouse in Moonachie, New Jersey, where gingerbread men and nutcrackers line the walls, live two massive turkeys, a larger-than-life robot, a dragon, Pikachu, and Spongebob Squarepants.

While this isn't Santa's North Pole workshop, it might be the closest thing in the world to it. The Macy's Parade Studio, where a group of workers build the floats, balloons, and costumes that are on display during the Thanksgiving Day Parade, devotes itself to the holiday season 365 days a year. The famed parade, which happens in New York City every year, was started in 1924 by Macy's store employees and is now a Thanksgiving tradition that millions of Americans tune in to NBC to watch. 

Macy's does not disclose any of the costs associated with putting on the parade each year. Some sites like Ebates.com have estimated it could be several million dollars, taking into account the presumed cost of float construction, costumes, and studio rent. A representative for Macy's declined to confirm that estimate with Business Insider, however.

We took a tour of the studio at the height of last year's Thanksgiving parade prep. John Piper, VP of the Macy's Parade Studio, showed us how their team helps put the magic together. 

Each parade float starts out as an idea, a sketch on a piece of paper.

Models are then made scaled to size; you can see them sitting on the table here. Hanging above are balloon models from past parades.

The studio has a library of books, mostly for children, that the artists use as a reference to help turn two-dimensional characters into real-life, 3D figures.