Life Lately | Festive Fun Day

After last year's Festive Fun Day, we knew it was the start of a beautiful tradition! This past Saturday, Alexa, Kristin and I continued that tradition by meeting up in the city to check out Christmasy things. As always, we had a full itinerary planned ahead of time and started off our day at South Street Seaport.

South Street Seaport was definitely in the holiday spirit! We visited their tree and quickly made our way to the new McNally Jackson afterwards. This was our first time seeing the store and we totally fell in love with it. We easily spent an hour walking around and taking photos. It's beautifully lit, well organized and the storefront is adorable. Luckily Kristin noticed the time or else we would've missed our reservation at Industry Kitchen! They were also decked out with Christmas decor as evidenced by all the wreaths, trees, Nutcracker statues and more. The food was delicious! There was so much we wanted to order but I settled on the lobster omelet (yummy & perfectly portioned for yours truly) and for dessert, we ordered their Pop Candy Land "pizza" which looked completely crazy and yet, surprisingly tasty! It's rainbow crust, cream cheese frosting, pop rocks, and cotton candy. We actually ate most of it and people around us were so fascinated by it that they asked if they could take pictures!

From there we went to Pier 17 to see the Winterland Arch but stopped to check out Jason Naylor murals along the way. We also made a quick pit stop at Milk Bar because we had to get the peppermint pretzel snaps (they're a must-try while they're still in season!) and other cookies for ourselves. Then our official next stop was Strasbourg-Alsace Christmas Market at Bowling Green Park. It's an authentic French (!) Christmas market that's famous in Europe and a small version of it was brought to NYC for the first time. It was so quaint and definitely gave me Paris vibes.

Next on our list was the NYSE Christmas Tree on Wall Street. The tree was at a weird angle but I was most excited to see the Fearless Girl statue! I didn't realize it wasn't by the bull anymore so when we went over there and didn't see it, I was a bit disappointed. Then we got to the tree and she was right there! I really do love what she represents. Next was Zucotti Park which is a little area in between two buildings that's covered in lights and has cute groups of Christmas trees inside of it. It's so simple yet so festive. Our next stop was supposed to be Brookfield Place but since it was so cold we decided to walk underground through the Oculus. Best idea ever! It was completely decked out for Christmas and fit perfectly with our theme of the day. We ended up walking around a bit and taking in all the decor. I'd love to go back when it's less crowded and maybe shop while I'm at it too!

Eventually, we made our way to Brookfield Place. We went there specifically for the Light Up Luminaries holiday installation they have. Unfortunately we chose the one day where they weren't running the light show but it was still a sight to behold. And then to cap off our festivities, we went to Stax Ice Cream to get their Holiday Unicorn ice cream cake, made with scoops of Peppermint Oreo Bark. I'd never had their cakes before and I can't believe I wanted this long! It was so good and the absolute perfect way to end our day.

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Have you been to any of these spots?

And do you love seeing NYC Christmas sights as much as we do?