Miracle on 34th Street has a lot to answer for in New York. Come Thanksgiving, there’s magic in the air and this city unashamedly becomes an all-singing, all-dancing Tinseltown that could give Lapland a run for its money. It’s busy, it’s brash, and it’s most definitely kitsch, but NYC’s Christmas spirit is infectious. Visiting the Big Apple between Thanksgiving and New Year is your ticket to the greatest festive show on earth.
Life-size angels serenade the skyscrapers, bell-ringing Salvation Army buskers coax smiles from reluctant commuters and Christmas markets vie with ice rinks for tourist dollars. Visitors can expect carol singing, baubles the size of taxis (and sparkly taxi-shaped baubles), plus world-famous Christmas trees and enough lights to mimic a midnight sun.
Here’s how to find Christmas nirvana in New York City.
Fifth Avenue’s department store decorations are a highlight
(Getty Images)
The basics
NYC is heaving in the run-up to Christmas. You’ll need to book tables for dinner, make reservations for drinks and prepare for queues and crowds. Not to mention wrapping up warm: although average daytime temperatures in December are around 7C, it’s not uncommon for cold snaps to send the mercury plummeting below zero. New Year’s Eve 2017 saw a low of -13C, the lowest recorded temperature that year.
Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade
The city comes to a standstill to celebrate Thanksgiving, which falls on 24 November this year. Around 3.5 million people descend on Manhattan for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the annual festival of traditional oversized floats and helium-balloon characters. The parade starts promptly at 9am on 77th St and Central Park West, snaking south to finish at Macy’s Herald Square on 34th St (look out for flyers with the full route).
Rocking around the Christmas tree
New York’s penchant for Christmas trees began in 1933, the year Rockefeller Centre opened. The annual lighting of the tree (typically in the first week of December; though this year it takes place on 30 November) is such a popular ceremony that road blockades go up around Rockefeller, police are brought in to manage crowd control, and nearby hotel prices spike. Each year the chosen Norway spruce tree ranges from 65ft to 90ft in size, travelling into NYC on a custom-made trailer from elsewhere in the US.
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