Christmas in New York is a bucket-list item for a reason

The following is an extract from Lonely Planet’s new guidebook Epic Snow Adventures of the World and has been republished with permission. See: lonelyplanet.com

If New York City were a house on your road, it would be the excessively illuminated and bedazzled one with animated reindeer and spinning candy canes.

Before we start: forget about words like ‘hip’ and ‘edgy’. No, there is nothing ‘underground’ about this. It’s definitely not a ‘cult favourite’ or ‘off the beaten track’.

This is a winter adventure that is about pure wonder – the kind of wonder you used to feel when you were seven years old, before you knew what was cool and uncool, before you worried about long queues and high prices.

It’s Christmas at the iconic ice-skating rink beneath the tree in Rockefeller Center in New York City and people are having a blast.

Whether or not you actually celebrate the holiday, Christmas in New York is a bucket-list item for a reason.

The city’s famously hard edge gets softened with a sprinkling of frost. People smile more. Shopfronts glow. The city even smells good: hot sugared almonds from street cart vendors, fancy candles wafting out of Soho boutiques, fir trees for sale on the lots that pop up seemingly 30 seconds after Thanksgiving ends.

Ice-skating in Rockefeller Center is perhaps New York’s most beloved Christmas tradition. The rink in the outdoor plaza has been open seasonally since 1939, creating a famous backdrop for photos and films.

Skaters twirls (and fall) in front of Prometheus, Paul Manship’s 1934 cast bronze sculpture of the Greek Titan stealing fire from the Gods. Behind that is the legendary tree – a Norway spruce, sometimes as much as 100ft (31m) tall, lit with great pomp the Wednesday following Thanksgiving.

It’s a tradition that dates to Rockefeller Center’s construction during the Great Depression, when workers put up a much humbler version and decked it with cranberries and tin cans.

Your admission ticket gets you an hour on the ice, which may seem short, but, believe me, doesn’t feel short at all, especially on a very cold afternoon when the wind is slipping down the back of my neck, despite my heavy wool scarf. There is plenty of time to do dozens of turns around the rink, gazing up at the art deco buildings, stopping to snap pictures.

These days I see that kids can rent a skating aid shaped like a giant penguin. Since the rink only holds 150 people, the line was overwhelming at first – the closer to Christmas, the longer they are. I am told that weekday mornings are quite nice but, remember, the hassle is part of the experience.

Amateur and first-time skaters from all over the country are falling over and giggling wildly. They’re holding hands. There is something delightful about people from all over the world coming together to try something they’ve always wanted to. This isn’t cool, but nobody cares. Everyone’s just enjoying themselves and each other, and the bright cold December sun.

But it can be fun to consider your time on the Rockefeller rink as just the beginning of a quintessential Christmas in New York tour. For me, the first stop post-skating is always Rockefeller Center’s outpost of La Maison du Chocolat, which serves unbelievably expensive – and unbelievably delicious – little cups of thick rich French hot chocolate. It’s the ideal jolt of warm sugar and caffeine to energise you back into the cold New York streets.

A 10-minute walk downtown leads me to Bryant Park, where December means Holiday Village time. Nearly 200 vendors set up in little glassed-in kiosks, where I can step in from the chill to look at handmade pottery, art prints, jewellery, ornaments and all sorts of other crafts. And there is food too – gooey raclette sandwiches with French ham and pickles, fluffy Chinese pork buns, spiked cider, Italian doughnuts stuffed with oozing Nutella. Oh, and there’s another skating rink – less iconic, sure, but much bigger. (It’s free if you bring your own skates.)

Afterwards, I hit Fifth Avenue and walk south for some of the city’s primo window displays. No, I cannot afford and also do not want any gemstone jewellery from Tiffany & Co, but I definitely do enjoy gawking at diamonds dripping from robin’s egg blue faux Christmas trees and dollhouse-size city dioramas sparkling in the lights.

I then cut over to Herald Square for the mother of all window displays at Macy’s, the department store that basically invented the tradition. Since 1870, it has been trimming its windows with trees, animatronic woodland creatures, elaborate streetscapes, faux falling snow and more.

It takes some 200 artists and designers nearly a month to create the enchantment. Families – or just people who are mad for Christmas – head all the way inside for the 8th-floor Santaland, a 13,000sqft (4000sqm) indoor North Pole village, complete with snowcapped mountains, gingerbread-trimmed houses, singing snowpeople and busy elves. It’s chaotic, overstimulating and, yes, magical (the chaos is part of the deal, remember?) But if you want to see old Saint Nick himself, make reservations online.

I recently stumbled upon an add-on to this tour that you might describe as off the beaten track. But it is New York, so I doubt it will be for long. Across the East River, a more local-oriented scene unfolds in Brooklyn’s Dyker Heights.

Unlike most of the rest of the city, this neighbourhood is mostly single homes, built for wealthy families in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At Christmas, homeowners attempt to outdo each other with the most splendiferous holiday displays.

Many hire professional decorating companies to smother their Tudors and Victorians with twinkling lights and make their yards into reindeer-and-sleigh parking lots. Individually, they’re beautiful. Together? A sight worth trekking to Brooklyn for. The best displays are usually on 11th Avenue to 13th Avenue and from 83rd to 86th Street. Go before 9pm, since some owners turn the lights off for the night.

Whether you’ve made the detour or not, the tour ends where it began: Rockefeller Center for another Christmas in New York activity that some may (unfairly) dismiss as a cliché: the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall.

The Rockettes are a nearly 100-year-old women’s dance company with gravity-defying high kicks. Their Christmas Show is the stuff of generations of holiday memories, with all the dazzle you would expect and can handle, set to classic Christmas songs like Jingle Bells, Let it Snow and White Christmas.

My own Christmas evenings in New York never feel complete until I’ve had a nightcap at Lillie’s Victorian Establishment, a 10-minute walk west of Rockefeller. With crystal chandeliers, red velvet banquettes and gilt-framed pictures of bygone queens, It’s themed and goofy – a lot like the rest of my day.

DIRECTIONS

Best time to go // Give the city a week to recover from Thanksgiving (the last Thursday in November) and Christmas activities will be in full swing.

Gear required // New York in December is cold – temperatures usually range from 0-4C, although it’s not unusual for things to swing lower or higher. Dress in layers.

Getting there // New York is served by two major airports – LaGuardia and JFK, as well as Newark Airport, across the river in New Jersey.

Where to stay // New York hotels are pricey, especially in Manhattan. Staying in outer boroughs is often cheaper, but make sure you’re close to public transport. But if there was a time to splurge, this is it: the

St Regis, with giant nutcrackers guarding the door, goes all-out for the holidays.

Things to know // Everyone loves New York at Christmas, which means crowds. Plan for the most popular activities (like ice-skating) on weekdays and/or mornings.