The MET's Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche
Driving into the city the highways are ringed with necklaces of light on the balconies of many high-rise apartment buildings.
Some museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the East Side and the American Museum of Natural History on the West Side have spectacular Christmas trees adorning their major interior spaces.
Some museums such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the East Side and the American Museum of Natural History on the West Side have spectacular Christmas trees adorning their major interior spaces.
Macy's, which owns the July 4th fireworks extravaganzas and the great parade on Thanksgiving, also has St. Nick in all his firmament in the wonderful film, "Miracle on 34th Street."
Many of the city's finest festive holiday displays have become hallowed traditions that bring smiles to the faces of all.
Many of the city's finest festive holiday displays have become hallowed traditions that bring smiles to the faces of all.
The Origami Holiday Tree at the American Museum of Natural History
1 - Everywhere you look, you see bright lights, but nowhere better than the great tree at Rockefeller Center Plaza overlooking its large ice rink. The north-facing residents at the west end of the Centria apartment tower on East 49th Street have spectacular views of the glorious and very festooned trees and its throngs of tourists.
2 - If the crowds there start to overwhelm, then stroll up Fifth Avenue to take in the great illuminations of Cartier and the snake of Bulgari and the windows and of Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany's and Bergdorf Goodman and be dazzled by the great star suspended over the avenue intersection at 57th Street, best viewed, along with the many trees warming Pomona in the fountain outside the Plaza Hotel - where "Home Alone II" was shot - from the Sherry Netherland Hotel at 59th Street.
3 - For nostalgia buffs seeking cozier venues for the holiday cheer, the wonderful phalanx of Park Avenue median Christmas trees are best seen from outside the Brick Presbyterian Church at 91st Street.
4 - More intimate and perhaps even more charming is the solitary Christmas tree in the center of the private and gated Gramercy Park, which can be seen from the great pre-war apartment building at One Lexington Avenue, the Gramercy Park Hotel, 18 Gramercy Park South and the National Arts and Players clubs.
5 - Nearby is Madison Square Park, with a smaller Christmas tree that is surrounded by several new residential buildings, the original Shake Shack and the many colored spires of Midtown to the north.
6 - A more open and democratic Christmas tree is several blocks south in front of the Washington Arch at Washington Square at the foot of Fifth Avenue overlooked by the high-rise residents of 1 and 2 Fifth Avenue.
7 - Lord & Taylor, the department store at 38th Street and Fifth Avenue, had for many years had the city's most sculptural and abstract Christmas tree drooping voluptuously from its facade affording the residents of 425 Fifth Avenue a very dazzling display. Today, the building is now home to Amazon who have at least illuminated the storefront windows for the holidays.
8 - Trees, of course, don't own the holiday spirit as the soon-to-be-reopened Tavern-on-the-Green restaurant in Central Park near West 67th Street has a splendiferous phantasmagoria of lit dreams and is not far from where many scenes from the movie "Elf" were filmed.
9 - The city's many glorious bridges offer their bejeweled necklaces of the night to the world's sirens.
10 - Last but not least, the new World Trade Center glitters at night with its many exposed light bulbs. The construction cheers the many residents of Battery Park City across West Street and beckons throngs to Bowling Green subway station to view fantastic views downwards from the tops of many skyscrapers.
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