How to Win the New York Holiday Season

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This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to New York

Blame Elf. Blame Miracle on 34th Street. Blame When Harry met Sally – specifically the scene where they carry a Christmas tree through snowy Manhattan. It’s definitely Hollywood’s fault that when I moved to New York from London two years ago, I expected to be drenched in festive magic every holiday season.

No doubt the same goes for the 7.5 million tourists expected to arrive in the city between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. A holiday trip to New York is on many people’s bucket lists, but I’ll be honest: sometimes it actually seems less magical sometimes. Dreaming about him Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree? You may, like me, find yourself stuck for hours in a crowd of slow-moving people recording TikTok videos. Ice skating? My inner Scrooge balks at the cost ($344.28 last time I checked, for my family of four to slide around the famous tree). A show? The same goes for ($744 for four tickets for The Rockettes’ spectacular Christmas show). Bah humbug.

But the holiday season in New York City is magical, he says Megan Marodactor, historian and tour guide, as long as you are well prepared. “Make reservations; this is not the time to try to get last-minute deals,” he says. Reserve a table at the highly rated The RockOwned by the team behind Tribeca’s trendy restaurant Frenchette, and you’ll get incredible views of the Rockefeller Tree. Or, if you can, throw money at the problem. TO Rockefeller VIP TourFor example, it includes access to private terraces inside the Art Deco skyscraper, for $285 per person.

But great displays aren’t exclusive to Midtown’s famous conifer; there is a lot of festive glitter elsewhere and fewer people. “Lower Manhattan is truly magical,” says Marod. She recommends walking from Union Square Holiday Market to Washington Square Park, or looking at the trees at the South Street Seaport and the New York Stock Exchange. Or, if you’re really into Christmas lights, take the subway to Dyker Heights in Brooklyn, an OTT enclave of dazzling homes.

Soho also shines brightly at this time of year. Robin Standefer, the stylish owner of a contemporary French restaurant La Merceriebeautifully decorates his establishment every year with a huge Christmas tree (a appetizer The stop is an ideal mid-afternoon treat. His recommendation for holiday shopping is to start around 10 a.m. (when some stores open; others not until 11 a.m.), near Central Park, at 57th Street and Fifth Avenue: stop by the wild window displays of Bergdorf Goodman, then take a cab or walk to SoHo. , where he loves “weird and unconventional stores” like Juan Derian for extravagant home items, totem and Rick Owens for unique designer fashion and the 100+ year old ribbon store Hyman Hendler in Midtown, where she shops for gift-wrapping decorations.

I’m starting to realize that the key to the holiday season is to pick one or two typical tourist activities, do them in the least disruptive way possible, and then fill the trip with authentic, idiosyncratic experiences. Like snuggling up in the cozy atmosphere of one of the city’s bookstore-bars, places to read and drink mulled wine on winter nights, which are popping up from SoHo to the Bronx. Maura Cheeks, novelist and owner of Liz’s Book Bar in Brooklyn, says New York excels at “third spaces, because our living spaces are really small.” It’s often a social experience, too, he adds: “New Yorkers are very open to meeting strangers,” something I’ve noticed since moving here, so you’re likely to find yourself chatting with locals. Far from the noise of Times Square, New York offers conviviality very well.

For Molly Krause, who works in visual arts, this time of year means heading to Chinatown, with its sword hunter illuminated signs and rows of lanterns. “It’s magical to me,” he says. She will go to Shanghai 21 restaurant or the popular and often oversubscribed Hwa Yuan Szechuanwhere she and her family spent the last day of Christmas (when it is a Jewish-American tradition to eat Chinese food), dining on crispy, spicy, stir-fried beef. There are so many special places here, like Nom Wah Tea Roomwhich is located in an atmospheric alley lined with lanterns.

Krause also rates Tribeca The Odeon restaurant, famous for hosting Andy Warhol and Tom Wolfe; Standefer offers Grand Central Oyster Bar for that “bustle of old New York”. This year I plan to take refuge in comfortable places like Balthazar and Bar Bemelmanswhich are bathed in that perfect, archetypal New York golden lighting.

For those who crave a less urban environment, there are Black Mountain Wine HouseVery off the beaten path (40 minute subway ride from Times Square) in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. It has a roaring fireplace and a “cozy, warm, Adirondack” atmosphere, says owner Tyler Maganzini. His other tips are Molly Shebeen in Gramercy—“They decorate a lot for Christmas, but it looks like a real place”—and Bowery HotelThe wooden covered bar. But if it snows, it always goes to Brooklyn Hostel in Cobble Hill: “A very old establishment with beautiful old huge windows, to sit and watch the snow fall under the street lights.”

Which reminds me: it hasn’t snowed much recently (a worrying streak of 701 days without snow was broken in mid-January 2024), which may have contributed to my Bah Humbug levels. If it snows during the holidays (although, sadly, the Old Farmer’s Almanac predicts a mild winter), I suspect even I will be helpless against New York’s holiday magic.

What do you like most about New York during the holidays? Tell us in the comments below. AND follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter