Christmas in NYC

In honor of the Rockefeller tree getting lit tonight, I wanted to share Brent and I’s experience traveling to NYC last December for a short, but sweet, Christmas vacation (in case any of my dear readers are planning a trip to the big city this December).

Before I get started, I want everyone to know that we’ve only been to NYC twice and by no means consider ourselves experts on what the city has to offer. BUT we did read many blogs before we went and had a list of things we wanted to do while visiting, and apparently all of the other hundreds of travelers read those same blogs. So much of our to-do list was stopped short due to long lines and wait times.

First off, New York City at Christmastime was nothing short of MAGICAL.

DAY 1

We flew into the Newark, NJ airport and got to the city via Uber, which was great because we were able to travel through the seven levels of the candy cane forest, past the sea of twirly-swirly gumdrops, and then, we rode through the Lincoln tunnel.

We stayed at Hotel Eventi in Midtown, which was in walking distance of everything we wanted to do. The room was great and the hotel was beautiful. There was even a daily complimentary cocktail hour in the mezzanine, so we made sure to stop by and warm up with a hot toddy.

Shortly after we checked in, we bundled up and walked to the Macy’s in Herald Square (from the original Miracle on 34th Street) to do a little Christmas shopping. And to our surprise when we exited the store, we were dealt our own miracle on 34th Street - a beautiful NYC snow storm!

We ended up going back to our hotel to watch the snow and grabbed cocktails and a bite to eat at The Vine (the restaurant located in Hotel Eventi).

DAY 2

The second day, we ventured out for a day of sightseeing and shopping.

We stopped at, what we assumed was, a local bakery. But then we started seeing them on every corner.

We visited the New York Public Library.

(major front entry envy with the wreathed lion statues.)

Festive NYFD engine house.

And on every street corner, there were little Christmas tree stands. It reminded me of When Harry Met Sally when Sally dragged her tree out when she and Harry were on the outs.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral was a real treat for the eyes.

And then, we got to the tree. Now, I grew up in my midwest town of Omaha, watching the lighting of the Rockefeller tree on TV since before I can remember, so I had high hopes. When I approached the tree, my smile slowly turned to a frown as I realized it has no water in its stand and was a tree skeleton with lights draping from top to bottom. I was very disappointed. It looks much better from a distance.

We had “window shopping” on our list of festive things to do, but as you can tell by the photo above, that quickly dropped down to the bottom of the list because of the crowds.

We turned a corner and found this gorgeous tree at Lotte New York Palace. The entire courtyard was festive and I would highly recommend stopping to see it if you visit.

We had lunch and cocktails at the infamous Plaza Hotel.

That night we went and saw Elf: The Musical at Madison Square Garden. I would not recommend it. I’m a lover of the theater and performing arts but this was frightening.

DAY 3

The next day, we walked from Midtown all the way to Dominique Ansel Baker in SoHo to try one of his infamous CroNuts (a hybrid donut croissant) and we waited in line for an hour to get a taste. It was worth every minute.

We spend the morning and afternoon attempting to get into restaurants and bars we’d seen in movies or read about online, but ended up taking a tour of Greenwich Village, Washington Square and East Village.

Delicious cocktails at The Wayland.

A colleague had told me about an app called Today’s Tix, so that night we bought tickets to see Waitress on Broadway. IT WAS BY FAR THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP. It’s not Christmas-themed, but it was worth every penny. Including performances from Jason Mraz and Sara Bareilles, who sang two songs that were cut from the show. I cried for about an hour after that.

After the show, we had reservations waiting for us at Gallagher’s Steakhouse, which we stumbled upon the first time we went to NYC in 2015. We dubbed it “our place”.

I am wearing a scarf around my shoulders because I’m always cold. I had a festive red dress on, but unfortunately it’s hidden.

DAY 4

On our last day, we ate breakfast at Grand Central Station and I pretended to be Gossip Girl.

We ended our short trip in Bryant Park with ice skating. This was recommended to us, and we would pass it on, as there were very small crowds.

If you end up visiting New York at Christmastime, please, tell me all about it and if you took any of our recs!