Christmas is a lovely time to be in New York, the city spares no expense on buildings, streets and parks with beautiful decorations and lights. There are Christmas markets and ice skating rinks in the local parks and the usually hard mood of the city softens, albeit slightly.
Bryant Park Tree and Ice Skating Rink:
It is the busiest time of the year for tourists and you can tell because the stores are all more crowded than usual, if that’s possible! Macy’s was an experience, lining up for 15mins to buy anything and attendants standing at the bottom of each escalator assisting everyone coming off in an orderly manner. All the department stores (I saw Saks 5th Ave, Bloomingdales and Macy’s) have beautiful Christmas window displays that you join the crowds to wander from one to the next. Inside Macy's, you can just see their holiday season slogan "Believe":
In Rockefeller Center a lane with an orchestra of angels leads to the famous Christmas tree which stands high above their ice skating rink. Even though it was magnificent, I never really got over my shock in early Dec to learn that they chop down a 300 year old tree for the occasion each year and it ends up as compost in Central Park. I always liked the fake one in Martin Place. Sydney and with a few updated decorations it would do just as well :)
As an aside - I found it somewhat contradictory that no one says “Merry Christmas” in this city but the phrase Happy Holidays is more frequently used which is politically correct due to the diverse religious mix here but yet; the whole place is decked out for Christmas. Anyway…
Mum was here for the holidays and one of the highlights of her visit was the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall starring the “world famous Rockettes”. (eHow.com says: As the largest indoor theater in the world, Radio City Music Hall boasts a Great Stage that is almost 150 feet wide, and it has 5,933 seats) On its massive stage, we saw Santa in 3d fly around the sights of New York, there was a Nativity scene with live camels, goats and sheep, an ice skating rink came up from the bowels of the stage for one scene and the Rockettes high kicked their way through the show. Mum could only describe the show with one word “spectacular” and we thoroughly enjoyed the light hearted show.
Click here for a brief clip of the show so you can get the idea.
Ash was keen to have a real tree for Christmas and at the start of December many street vendors began popping up around the city. The old guy near our place has been coming from Vermont every December for 30 years to sell trees on the same corner, he brings his whole family down for a month and they live in a small campervan next to the trees. We were talked into a “premium” tree but we didn’t regret it - it was perfect.
The first thing we did was add the lights and because the tree was so huge we needed 500 fairy lights to cover it! I was in charge of decorations and having to start from scratch, and with a premium tree, and inspired by my friend Tina’s yearly masterpiece, I went to the Macy’s level that was just a Christmas shop and, would you know it, they were having a massive sale: 75% off most things so I was able to decorate our tree with some lovely baubles and New York mementos. We placed our tree at the front window with a timer switch so as we came home at night we would see it already lit up in the window. We really enjoyed our tree for the month, as did Dasha who we had to keep from drinking the water!
Christmas Day was a great day spent with Ash, my mum and some friends from Aus. There were 6 of us altogether and with no worries about it being to hot to roast, Ash cooked up a feast for us all.
On Boxing Day many of you would have heard we had a blizzard, the 6th worst snow storm in New York history. We were brave (or stupid?) and went out early in the day to enjoy Central Park. It was actually very pleasant while we were in the park with delicate snow falling as we wandered through the paths, but after a coffee and crème brulee stop at the Plaza Hotel, the storm turned ferocious. Mum and I had an adventure coming home from the theatre in thigh deep virgin snow at 11pm at night, there was no one else to be seen on the streets as we fought the blowing wind and snow to reach our front door. We must have been a sight!!
See
Ash’s blog for more great photos of snow covered New York.
Skating in Central Park was on my to-do list as a tourist here and it didn’t disappoint. On a beautiful, not too cold evening after work we made it to the park for a skate. Think of the movie Serendipity… Then add a few thousand people (literally). A few laps around was enough to fulfil my list, the skates were hard plastic and not really comfortable and the crowds were more of a danger than my rough skating skills but we had fun…
All year we talked about being in Times Square for the party on New Year’s Eve but there was a late decision to do something more low key because the thought of standing with a million plus people for 7 plus hours in the cold just seemed less appealing as the day approached. I talked with my colleagues to get some ideas and it seemed even those that had lived in the city all their lives have never been to Times Square for the famous ball drop so that was enough of a reason for us to act like a local and find somewhere within walking distance of home! We ended up enjoying a lovely meal at a French Restaurant and ringing in 2011 with some party poppers, tacky hats and lots of red wine.
