A visit to New York during Christmas to take in the festivities of the Big Apple. The city goes all out with their Christmas decorations. I stayed the first night in the Roosevelt hotel on 45th/Madison, then changed to the Omni Berkshire on 52nd/Madison for the remaining nights. The Roosevelt has a nicer, more elegant lobby while the Omni has nicer, more modern rooms with more space. The rooms at the Omni have a brighter feel and have plenty of electrical outlets.
Window Decorations
My favorite displays are the Lord and Taylor windows, with windows featuring the Christmas theme, including:
* China
* Central Park
* Christmas shop
I also liked Bergdorf Goodman, with their windows making good use of animals. Macy's had some New York themed displays, and Saks had a window display of computers.
Midtown Manhattan
* FAO Schwarz toy store, featuring a model of Statue of Liberty build out of Legos.
* Apple store, featuring an all-glass elevator which looked futuristic. We loved the Macbook Air - it is very light weight and is like an iPad with full computer functions.
* New York Public Library, which had an exhibit on lunch hour. Lunch as we know it got its roots in New York. Before lunch came around, people had a snack in mid-day then dinner in late afternoon. But with workers working longer hours, dinner came later in the day and workers were given a designated time in mid-day to have a light meal, which became known as lunch.
* Palace Hotel lobby
* Helmsley building, which looks like the Empire State Building when lit up
* Christmas Spectacular show, featuring the 85th anniversary of the Rockettes, at Radio City Music Hall.
* St Patrick Cathedral
Downtown Manhattan
* Sunday service at Redeemer Church with my friends, and I also attended their Christmas Eve service at 10:30pm - the room was packed even at that late hour.
* We had lunch in Chinatown, then grabbed ice cream at The Original Chinatown Ice Cream Factory. I loved their green tea ice cream.
* Firehouse Museum with old fire engine replica and an exhibit about Ground Zero
Holiday Train Show
This was held at the Botanical Gardens in the Bronx, and featured models of New York landmarks(past and current) made out of twigs, bark, and leaves with model trains running around. There are models of landmarks in other places, including San Francisco, Egypt, Greece, and Turkey. Very nice displays. Worth the price of admission. My favorite NYC models:
* Collection of Empire State Building, New York Stock Exchange, St Patrick Cathedral, Radio City Music Hall, and Chrysler Building
* New York Macy's
* Yankee's Statuim including the baseball field
* JFK Airport, including a Concorde and a Boeing 747
* Statue of Liberty
* Guggenheim Museum
* Old Penn Station
* Castle in Central Park
* Brooklyn Bridge
* Manhattan Bridge
* George Washington Bridge
