Holiday Outing in the City Pt. 2

The weather has been all over the place lately. One day it’s a chilly, the next it feels like spring. In both cases, it’s not your normal Northeast December weather at all. Usually, it’s cold by now and we’re wondering if we’ll get a white Christmas. Right now, the temperature for Christmas Eve is predicted to get to 73!! I think I heard on the news that it’s about 30 degrees above average. So weird.

Luckily, this past Monday when I went on my 2nd holiday outing in the city (New York City) it was a little chilly which helped me get in the holiday mood. If you missed my first holiday outing in the city of the season, click here! I absolutely love New York City at Christmas time. All the lights and decorations make me so happy and seriously make me want to do a happy dance.

First, like last time, I had to pick out an outfit.

I went with dark blue/grey jeggings from Uniqlo, a plain white long sleeve tee from Kohl’s, a very Christmas-y plaid top from Target, and my Betsey Johnson combat booties from DSW. For outerwear, I wore my American Eagle coat again like last time.

After taking the train into the city, my friends and I went to Bryant Park. I went here on my last outing, but this time the tree was lit! The park also has a lot of tables set up outside the ice skating rink, so it was perfect for us to sit and catch up with hot drinks.

The view right in front of me from our little table was of the Empire State Building lit up in Christmas colors.

I always love seeing the giant Christmas Lights and Ornaments on 6th Avenue across from Radio City Music Hall. Speaking of Radio City Music Hall, it always looks beautiful at Christmas time. Unfortunately, my angle of the building before crossing the street included that street light.

Then, we made our way over to the famous Rockefeller Christmas Tree. I would’ve liked to get a nice shot of the tree with the ice skating rink below, but it was very crowded so I couldn’t really take my time with pictures.

When you go to the see the tree at Rockefeller, you have to walk down closer to the street – well, I guess it depends on which direction you were walking in to begin with – but you need to see the light show displayed on the side of Saks Fifth Avenue. It changes every year or maybe every few years, I’m not sure. I know that the last time I went it was a snow flake show. This time it was a castle. But, the music is always “Carol of the Bells”. There is a constant display of lights, for example this year it was the outline of a castle with a clock ticking down. I didn’t pay attention to how much time passed between “shows”, but I think it was 10 minutes. So every 10 minutes the whole thing begins again and there’s a beautiful light show on the building with the music playing. I posted a 15-20 second video on my Instagram that can show you how awesome this is much better than I can explain in words!

I had a great view of the Saks light show and when I turned around, a great view of the tree as well. I love how the angels line the pathway to the tree.

Shoutout to Peak Thai for a yummy dinner. It took us forever to find a place for dinner that we wanted to eat at (we weren’t in the mood for Italian or pub food) that didn’t have a long wait or required reservations (um, who makes reservations on a Monday night?). I got the Eggplant Basil with Tofu.

Walking back to Penn Station, we passed Grand Central Station, which was completely lit up and made me smile!

Tree lined streets make me happy. Lit up tree lined streets make me super happy!

And lastly, the famous Macy’s on 34th Street with their annual “Believe” sign on the side of the building.

We didn’t check out the Macy’s or Saks window displays this year. For those of you who have never seen them before, there’s a start and finish to the windows and people walk down (it’s usually roped off so you go in order) and the windows are either some beautiful, artistic, feast for the eyes or like with Macy’s tells a Christmas story.

Christmas-time in the city always puts me in a jolly mood! If you’ve never experienced New York during the holidays, I highly recommend you do it at least once in your life!