As is the modern way, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade was buttressed by blockades of sand-filled sanitation trucks, patrolled by sniffer dogs and guarded by police. The security was “stronger than ever,” said James P. O’Neill, the police commissioner.

But as it has been for 90 prior parades, it was also thronged by children, packed with marching bands and dotted overhead with leviathan balloons yawing in blue-sky breeze. To Jacob and Keith Maloney, brothers from Washington, D.C., it was better than ever.

In the crisp morning, they watched as their father, Jahmal Maloney, marched with the United States Air Force Honor Guard down the avenues, amid the music, beside the Grinch and Olaf and the 77-foot Red Mighty Morphin Power Ranger.