This just in from Jim Korkis:

[Here's something to welcome in the New Year. As a kid living in Glendale, California, one of the big thrills of New Year's Day was seeing the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parade on local television. As I got older, I sometimes even went the night before with friends and camped out on Colorado Boulevard to get a good spot to see the parade in the morning. One year, I even helped with the Glendale entry that celebrated Donald Duck and had Clarence Nash on the float. For my help, I got a special Rose Parade pin with Donald Duck's face on it. That was a real limited edition pin.

Anyway, here is an excerpt from the 1955 Rose Parade Pictorial Souvenir Guide that featured the very first Disneyland themed float with 7,000 pink roses! (There was a Disney Snow White float in the 1938 parade with Snow White and the dwarfs.) Notice the Disneyland floral hot air balloon floating over the the float just like in the original sketch by Herb Ryman. The float was sponsored by Helms Bakery and I remember going down San Fernando road to that bakery as a kid.]

For additional information about Disney and its participation in the Rose Parade, Wade Sampson wrote an article about it a few years ago at this link.