Children of all ages will be boarding the Pink Pig at Lenox Square in Atlanta for the annual holiday rite of passage.

The ride on Macy’s Priscilla the Pig opens to the public at 10 a.m. on Oct. 27 and continues through Dec. 30. Rides cost $3 each and proceeds benefit Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Families can hop on and take a trip through a life-sized storybook of holiday characters.

On the VIP kickoff of the ride on Thursday, 4-year-old Ritesh Vunnam, a Children’s Healthcare patient, was the first VIP to ride Priscilla. He was excited.

“I rode it three times,” Ritesh said. “I liked the tunnel back there.”

His parents, Sandhya and Srinivassa Vunnam of Alpharetta, said Ritesh is living with a rare, life-threatening disease called pulmonary veno-occlusive, which causes high blood pressure in the lungs.

“He still loves to color and play with his Xbox,” his mother said. “He’s going through a lot, but we have to be tough and keep him happy.”

Other patients and friends and families of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta had exclusive access to the ride and got pink cupcakes and face painting.

Jill Ivie and daughters Kyler, 8, and Taylin, 2, who have had open-heart surgeries, said riding the Pink Pig is an annual tradition for the family.

“We love it,” she said. “The Pink Pig is so cute and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta is so awesome for doing this.”

The Pink Pig, which began in 1953 as a children’s ride along the ceiling of the downtown Rich’s store, is 59 years old this year.

In 2003, Priscilla was reintroduced under a 170-foot, 1950s-themed Pink Pig Tent in the upper-level parking deck near Lenox Square’s Macy’s.

To date, Macy’s has donated more than $470,000 to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

The Pink Pig ride is open weekdays 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Saturdays 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; and Sundays noon to 6 p.m.

It is closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.

In December, it opens an hour later on weekdays, and on Christmas Eve, it’s open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Macy’s at Lenox Square is at 3393 Peachtree Road N.E. in Atlanta.