Christmas in New York City

Just a few more trip posts; I promise! I had always wanted to visit my favorite city at Christmastime. It was actually the time around Thanksgiving when we visited, but New York is already alive in celebrating Christmas, as well. Here are a few of the highlights:

We went to Cirque Du Soleil's production of Wintuk. This was the final season of the show.

We went on a Sunday because it was Kids' Day, and there were activities set up in the lobby. There were also performers milling around to meet the kids.

They got face paintings.

We got there fairly early, which was good because soon after we arrived, the crowds came pouring in. The lines for every activity were horrendous. It wasn't too bad for us, thank goodness.

They got to decorate winter-themed frames.

I had always wanted to take the kids to a Cirque du Soleil show since we choose to not attend regular circuses. I wanted them to see all of the tricks and acrobatics. The show was definitely fun. I don't know that it would have been a show that Ryan and I would have wanted to see by ourselves, but we were thrilled being there with the kids. They couldn't take their eyes off of it. The boys loved the cycling maneuvers, and Sissy was happy as can be when there were girls dancing.

The finale was beautiful. Thousands of paper snowflakes came floating from the ceiling over the entire audience. They loved that and were gathering as many as they could catch.

The other show we watched with the kids was the Radio City Christmas Spectacular.

The lobby of Radio City Music Hall was decorated beautifully. Unfortunately, they confiscated my camera at the entrance because it had a telephoto lens, and I only had my phone during the performance.

I LOVED THIS SHOW. We all did. Sissy, of course, said she wants to be a Rockette one day. I hope her legs grow longer than her Mamas.

I know some people make it a tradition to attend the show yearly, and I can understand why. I certainly would if I could. LOVED IT.

The sets were amazing!

3D glasses come with the programs, and you are instructed to put them on during one act at the beginning. There is a huge animation that shows Santa arriving in NYC, and he's FLYING fast through the streets, passing by many of the city's attractions. The 3D effect makes you feel as if you are riding in Santa's sleigh, too.

Fortunately, there was even a spectacular nativity scene included.

Afterward (when I got my camera back), I took about a dozen pictures, thinking this would be a good shot for our Christmas cards. If you didn't receive one of our Christmas cards this year...don't worry; nobody else did, either.

There was also a spot where the kids could write a letter to Santa and put it in the mail.

Afterward, the kids took their picture with Santa Claus (picture shown here if you missed it). My PLAN was to take them to see Santa at Macy's (on 34th street), but the longer we were in NYC, the more tiring it was to even think about dragging the kids to another location. Since they've never seen Miracle on 34th Street, and it would have only been special to me, we opted to stay here with the Radio City Music Hall Santa (who was very cute, anyway).

Since we started our drive home the day after Thanksgiving, we missed a lot of the lights and fancy store window displays. However, there are still a lot of Christmas decorations up in November, and more were being added daily.

I already mentioned that Dash and I went ice skating one night at Rockefeller Plaza. (That's us, sort of in the middle)

This is the view from above the rink. The rink is smaller than I thought it would be. We had hoped to ice skate at Central Park, too, but we just ran out of time to do everything we wanted!

I didn't get a picture of the shops at Bryant Park. The area is set up as a holiday market, with over 100 merchants. I didn't buy anything, but Tornado and I had a lot of fun walking around one day during the rest of the family's naptime. There is actually a free ice skating rink at Bryant Park (through the end of February), as well, and we enjoyed standing there watching the skaters for a few minutes.

I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the weather was in November. There was only one day that was really cold, at the end of the trip. I definitely recommend a trip to NYC during the holidays.