Your favorite NYC holiday sights/sounds?

[broadwaytourist]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 11:33am

My first trip to NYC during the holiday season Dec. 16 - 21. What holiday goings n do you suggest I not miss? Planning walk he window walk, RC Spectacular, and musical White
Christmas. Your thoughts? Plus seeing 8 broadways - that's a given!

[Magdalene]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 7:22pm

Don't forget the Rockefeller Center Tree!

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 8:47pm

Bryant Park
Grand Central

[mominator]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 8:49pm

Be sure to catch the light show outside Saks. Quite cool, it is best if you wait until it is dark.

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 8:52pm

The area around the tree is a zoo & generally you cannot get anywhere near it.We still try though.

This year Christmas will be in Paris so it should prove to be a great Christmas with Midnight Mass @ Notre Dame..

[Jane2]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 8:57pm

What's going on in Grand Central around Christmas, I was never there for it.

[Eris0303]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 9:09pm

I always found the windows at Lord & Taylor to be beautifully done. I was extra excited by the Rockefeller tree last year because it was from my town.

[Jane2]

Posted: 11/22/09 at 9:11pm

I avoid RC at all costs at night during the holidays. It's a very unpleasant experience and I can't recommend it.

[broadwaytourist]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 8:06am

Thanks, all, for the tips. I hope you have happy holidays in Paris or wherever you may end up. Do you think I'll be boycotted over the holdiay vs. Christmas thing?

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 8:16am

something about the tree makes me turn 6 years old again.

[poeticmelody]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 9:30am

I love going to the Rockefeller Center tree lighting event.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 9:36am

Walking up 5th ave. looking at the store windows is always fun too.

[winston89]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 11:07am

When I was younger I used to love the lights of fifth avenue and the tree at Rock Center. Now that I am older, I guess living in NYC around the holidays has made me a jaded person. I don't think of it as exciting that the tree is there. I just tend to just shrug it off as no big deal.

[siny]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 11:20am

Grand Central has laser shows every half hour on the hour.

Also not to be missed, temporary Charmin bathrooms in Times Square that open today. I took my out-of-town visitors there last year and it was their favorite destination. And Duracell Lounge in the same location where you can generate some energy for the New Year sign by pedaling a bike.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 11:28am

The Saks light show is my favorite thing in the world to see. It's best if possible to get there late when the foot traffic has died down a bit and you can actually enjoy the tree and just take it all in. I could spend all night there.

[Marianne2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 11:34am

Thank you for reminding me about the Charmin restrooms, siny. I'm going to have to visit there this year because I auditioned to be one of their ambassadors, but did not get chosen.

And thanks for mentioning Grand Central as well, whoever posted about it. I've never gone there because I figured it was just a train station and there is nothing worth looking at. Now I think I will.

[TimesSquareRegular]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 11:43am

Spend a little time browsing the arts & crafts booths - lots of them at both Bryant Park, and at the Columbus Cirlce entrance to Central Park.

[uncageg]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 12:30pm

Bryant Park and the Rockefeller Center tree. I saw both for the 1st time in 2007. I actually got teary eyed when I saw the tree. The store windows are always fun. We did a tour of them all on the night I saw the tree.

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 1:04pm

Last year at Rock Center, some chick ran her damn baby stroller over my foot and then yelled at ME when I dropped the F bomb in from of her darling youngster. The tree is best from afar.

[D2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 1:56pm

I love the giant snowflake suspended over the intersection of 5th Avenue and 57th street.

And as Eris pointed out, Lord & Taylor's windows. They are always nostalgically spectacular.

[Jane2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:09pm

Marianne - even off-season, Grand Central is much much more than just a train station!

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:14pm

The snowflake used to be my favorite, even more than the tree. But they changed it a few years ago.

It's still nice--nicer, I suppose--but I miss the old, low-tech one.

[D2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:16pm

True, Reg - I agree. But I still like seeing it there.

[Jane2]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 2:58pm

For D2:

[SonofMammaMiaSam]

Posted: 11/23/09 at 3:04pm

I can, and have, stood in front of the windows at Bergdorf Goodman for hours.