The Parade Company

You know the floats and the giant papier-mâché “Big Heads” that roll down Woodward every Thanksgiving morning? They’re born here, in a 200,000-square-foot warehouse on the east side — and you can visit them year-round. The Parade Company is the nonprofit that produces America’s Thanksgiving Parade — the tradition Hudson’s started back in 1924 and handed off in 1979 — along with the Ford Fireworks and the Turkey Trot.

Their studio tour is one of Detroit’s great hidden delights: artisans building floats in every stage of construction, a costume shop with 3,000-plus outfits, and the world’s largest collection of those wonderful, slightly eerie Big Heads — caricatures of local legends like Rosa Parks, Diana Ross, and Bob Seger, some still wearing their original 1920s Italian newsprint. It’s pure, handmade Detroit magic, and most locals have never been.