Holiday Lights in New York City

Now that the Rockefeller Center Tree has been lit, and you may have read that I chanced upon the rehearsals for the Tree lighting, it is officially holiday season in New York. This of course means that Manhattan comes alive with holiday lights, and a time when I love to walk everywhere I go, cold notwithstanding.

I have a separate post with places like Hudson Yards and what used to be called Time Warner Center for their lights, which are always spectacular, but I wanted to share all the holiday festivities and gorgeous holiday windows I have been running into over the last couple of weeks. I cannot begin without sharing a picture of the Rockefeller Center Tree, even though it is important enough to warrant its own post here.

At one end of Rockefeller Plaza is Radio City on Sixth Avenue, and there are a couple of blocks around here that are always spectacular, and thankfully don’t make an effort to change year after year, even though the red and green colored lights are a new addition this year.

Just for the sake of comparison, here is a picture from 2014 (I know, Samsung cameras were good even back then!) –

These candy canes appeared last year – or maybe the year before – for the first time, and they seem to becoming an annual occurence –

The one constant is the Christmas Spectacular featuring the Rockettes at Radio City, which has people lining up for the show.

I am actually friends with a Rockette – everyone definitely needs one in their life – and the highlight for me was being able to go backstage after watching her perform in the show.

I love the set of lights a block away from this, but there has been construction going on at this Plaza for a while, so we get a very sad version of lights compared to the gorgeousness in years past –

Fifth Avenue next to Rockfeller Center always has amazing holiday lights, both on the streets and on the storefronts. Here are some of the decorations in the form of giant toys on Fifth Avenue, a tradition that started a couple of years ago:

For the first time this year I noticed that the poles around the area are all festive as well –

St Patrick’s Cathedral and Atlas (Shrugged? Sorry, couldn’t resist) are all dressed up for the holidays –

You can see the Cartier store all lit up behind one of the decorations above, here it is this year, and in years past –

The Chanel store is wearing its signature necklace, literally and figuratively –

The Bergdorf Goodman windows are always a delight! Here are some – okay maybe all since I couldn’t decide which ones to leave out – of them –

The Saks holiday lights are spectacular as usual, this time with an Elton John theme –

The Saks holiday windows are always on point with thoughtful messaging, though they haven’t translated as well into pictures as all of them have motion, and I am having a tough time combining them all into a video-

The Lotte Palace Hotel has managed to convert a courtyard under construction into a winter wonderland all the same –

There are wonders to be found on most streets these days –

I went to Bryant Park before the tree was lit, but it is looking festive, skating rink, holiday village and all –

Grand Central is getting its festival hat on, though I always seem to miss their holiday fair given the timings –

Macy’s is keeping up with their holiday windows, though the pictures don’t always do them justice as some of them have motion –

The MetLife building is all dressed up in green and red –

You know it is the holiday season when streets are full of Christmas trees for sale. I once had a vendor selling these right below my window, and had to deal with a month of non stop Christmas music all the time!

I have a lot of holiday lights that I still have to get to over the next few weeks, but it certainly is starting to feel a lot like Christmas around here these days!

#gottalovenewyork