SEATTLE – Seattle's Holiday season officially kicks off Friday and preparations are underway for the annual Macy's holiday parade.

Volunteers are working overtime filling up the more than 50,000 balloons needed for this year's floats.

The parade's traditional floats include old favorites such as a giant gingerbread house, huge Frango boxes and Pacific Northwest Ballet's Nutcracker.

New floats include a Christmas puppy, a kitty cat, and a poinsettia.

The parade concludes with a confetti snowstorm to welcome Santa Claus.

The parade gets underway Friday morning at 9 a.m. in downtown Seattle.

Then on Friday afternoon, the tree-lighting ceremony at Westlake Center takes place, starting with the lighting of the tree, the Space Needle and the KING 5 tower set for 5:25 p.m.

If you can't make it down there, you can catch all the fun on KING 5 or on KING5.com.