See Hoda make a grand entrance to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on the Tom Turkey float

Two Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade fixtures joined forces for a memorable entrance this year.

TODAY's Hoda Kotb kicked off the festivities by riding in on the famous Tom Turkey float that traditionally leads all the floats to start the parade.

The animatronic turkey rolling down the streets of Manhattan signals that the parade is underway.

"This is amazing," Hoda said. "I had to ride with Tom Turkey, I've never ridden with him before. This is an amazing perspective. The crowds are wild, the crowds are ready."

This marks the fifth straight year Hoda has served as one of the hosts of the annual extravaganza, while Tom Turkey has been a regular part of it since the 1970s.

"Tom Turkey is hilarious," Hoda said. "By the way, I guess you don't realize it from here, the crowds are like 40 deep when you're going down that parade route. It was a perspective I'd never seen, I'm totally into it, you can feel it. And I've never sort of seen this city from that perspective, so it was pretty amazing."

Hoda and TODAY co-anchor Savannah Guthrie returned for another year of hosting duties along with TODAY weatherman Al Roker, who is back after missing last year's parade due to health issues.

Hoda filled in for Al last year at the official ribbon cutting ceremony on 34th Street in Manhattan with Macy's CEO Jeff Gennette to officially get the parade underway.

Standing aboard Tom Turkey on Thursday, Hoda helped lead a procession that featured 5,000 volunteers, 16 character balloons, 26 floats, 32 heritage and novelty balloons, more than 700 clowns, 12 marching bands, nine performance groups, some of the biggest stars in music, and even Santa Claus himself.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com