How to watch the 2025 Rose Bowl Game on New Year’s Day without cable?. Millions of people around the world are expected to watch the 136th Rose Parade on New Year’s Day as the annual floral extravaganza celebrates the theme “Best Day Ever!”
Preparations have been underway for months and, on Monday, a melange of floral scents wafted through the air as hundreds of volunteers buzzed around the Phoenix Decorating Company warehouse east of Los Angeles.
Inside, volunteers crawled on hands and knees or climbed scaffolding to add the finishing touches to the 17 floats at the facility. Many focused on inserting individual flowers into small tubes filled with water and then neatly placing each vial, one by one, onto the floats.
It’s the calm before the storm,” said Chuck Hayes, who handles sponsor relations at the Phoenix Decorating Company.
Hayes could hardly finish answering one question before being asked another by a staff member or volunteer, or being whisked away to address an urgent matter. Nearby, a young man atop a float warned he had found a leaf bug while his colleague hurried to inspect the piece.
More than 800,000 people from across the country line up to see the spectacle every year, and millions more watch from home. NBC will broadcast the Rose Parade for the 98th year at 11 a.m. ET. The New Year’s Day tradition will also [stream on Peacock.
One of the most anticipated floats this year will pay tribute to the hit musical “Wicked” released earlier this year by Universal Pictures. (Comcast owns Universal and NBC News.)
The massive undertaking includes some 32 floats — all made from organic material — 20 marching bands and 16 equestrian groups.
This year’s theme is intended to showcase “life’s best moments,” parade officials said.
“Together, we celebrate where we’ve been and what we look forward to. It’s about family, friends, and community and what we have to celebrate — and to be thankful for,” Tournament of Roses President Ed Morales said in a statement.
Sitting near the warehouse entrance, Diane Davis plucked black beans one by one from a white cup and glued them with a thin paint brush to a panel bearing the image of Jesus and two children.
His brown hair was made of cinnamon, his white robe crushed rice and the blue background was finely cut statice flower that had been trimmed with small scissors.
The scene was being constructed on a panel, one of many that made up the Lutheran Hour Ministries float in 2023. It has since been repurposed as a display model to teach visitors about the work that goes into creating floats.
An identical one will be featured on this year’s Lutheran Hour float, which will showcase two heralding angels and a church complete with stained glass windows.
Davis’ mother, Fran, worked on the original panel two years ago and noticed that the black beans she so carefully installed were beginning to crumble. This week, on her 89th birthday, she began the painstaking work of using a razor blade to remove the damaged beans and replace them with new ones.
Even a display panel must look its best, both mother and daughter said.
“These beans have a little white on them and that’s not supposed to show,” Davis said.
“My mom has a bit of a short fuse,” she added with a laugh. “She did it for three hours today and then said, ‘I’m done.’ So I have to make sure I get this right.”
This year’s participants finalized designs in the spring and spent the rest of the year bringing their vision to life. For Canadian nonprofit Coding for Veterans, which trains service members to work in tech and cybersecurity, the Rose Parade is a chance to honor the armed services and send a message that veterans are ready for a new life.