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12.15.2011

TO DO IN NEW YORK: CHRISTMAS

my christmas tree: the bryant park edition

new york is the best at christmastime. all the twinkle lights in the streets, the christmas trees in all the shop windows, and it's finally just cold enough for hot chocolate. we've been throwing ourselves into this christmas season. heavily borrowed from my friends and their traditions, here are some of the things worth doing and seeing if you're in the city come december. 

1. see the tree at rockefeller center check!
2. see christmas windows along 5th avenue and at macy's
3. see the radio city christmas spectacular (rockettes doing the can-can! live camels at the nativity scene!)
4. participate in the handel's messiah sing-in at lincoln center (choir nerds!)
5. see the transit museum's holiday train display, the holiday fair, and the kaleidoscope light show, all at grand central station
6. attend the eucharist service at trininty church on wall street on christmas eve (i've heard this is amazing.)
7. play at fao schwarz (sadly, owned by the toys r us these days, doesn't feel as special somehow), and peek through the lobby of the plaza hotel across the street afterward.
8. go ice skating at bryant park, least expensive rink in the city.
9. visit santa at macy's (and catch the marionette show after!)
10. play "elf" and visit all the christmas trees in the city (don't forget the one inside the met!)

here are the rest of my holiday must-dos.

1. read the christmas story
2. watch the grinch (not jim carrey)
3. make obscene amounts of snowflakes and hang them from the ceiling
4. hang mistletoe in the bedroom ;)
5. make christmas cookies and eat ALL OF THEM
6. christmas song dance party in the living room
7. make a gingerbread house
8. go on a hot chocolate crawl

what are your christmas must-dos?

17 comments:

  1. Go to Christmas Card Lane down in San Diego :) In the community I grew up in they have this famous tradition of making huge Christmas Cards and decorating their houses to the extremes! It is a very well known thing in Southern California, people travel just to come see it :) It has always been something I love being apart of!

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  2. my husband and i are spending a day in the city before heading to my familys for the holidays and i'm definitely going to use some of your suggestions!
    love,
    elisabeth

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  3. My Mike saw some video about punching gingerbread houses, and he's pretty excited about making that an annual tradition, so I'll probably be making a gingerbread house and then punching it at some point in the next week.

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  4. I just got back from New York! I'm pleased to see that I inadvertently completed quite a few of the things on your Christmas list! I'm posting my Christmas in NY pictures now/this week!

    It really was a LOVELY/EXTREMELY PERFECT time to be there. You are so lucky to able to call it home (although I think I might die of exhaustion)!

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  5. Hey, great list. I hope you get everything done especially the hot chocolate crawl! I'm coming to the city in January and would love to know of some good places to get out the cold and have a good hot chocolate! Hope you can help! Have a good Christmas! x

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  6. New York!! My dream is to spend the rest of my Christmas there. But for now must dos are ice skating at downtown la!! I love doing that.

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  7. Christmas Story...I have to watch it when it plays as a marathon on Christmas Eve! Go ice skating at the outdoor rink. I'm with you on the obscene amounts of snowflakes...that will actually commence this weekend. And I'll leave them up until the end of January! Hot chocolate stirred with candy canes.

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  8. Christmas in New York must be a blast!

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  9. Someday. Someday, Nat, I am going to visit New York. If I'm lucky, it will be Christmastime.

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  10. Cute list!! I would add to watch Elf since that is a Christmas classic :)

    http://hellnatalie.wordpress.com

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  11. AMNH has a tree too! I put it there!

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  12. this list is just what I needed! we're heading to NYC next week!

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  13. usually i'm fine with the european lifestyle but around this time of year, i want to beam myself to nyc. if i'm ever in the big apple in december, though, i'll refer to this list right here.

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  14. My must-dos include:
    -watch The Muppet Christmas Carol
    -watch The Grinch (also, the original cartoon one)
    -read A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (a tradition started, I think, five years ago)
    -wear a scarf as often as possible (hello, freezing cold Idaho winter!)
    -see the Christmas lights around town
    -listen to the United Methodist bell choir (actually did this during the First Presidency Christmas devotional...)
    -watch the First Presidency Christmas devotional
    -wrap all the gifts I've purchased; I'm done shopping, and not one gift is wrapped yet. I'll probably do this tomorrow while watching me some Grinch (and maybe White Christmas, depending?)

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  15. We just did almost everything on your list! We were in the city last week all the way from a teeny tiny town in Idaho! It was beautiful and lovely and worth every back breaking step I took! (27 weeks preg. w/Twin girls!! I think I'm still recovering) I also liked the tree at washington sq. park...people watching wasn't bad either!
    Merry Christmas!

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  16. Must make homemade sourdough doughnuts and roll them in sugar, not powdered, thankyou...just sugar. The more the better! I love it, my waist...not so much.

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  17. When we are in NY for the holidays we always hit up Yonah Schimmel's knish shop. It's a tiny little hole in the wall with knishes hot out of the oven and warm bowls of cabbage soup.

    The sing along messiah is always something I wanted to do! How fun!

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