Life Lately | Festive NYC Day

For the last two years, Alexa and I (plus Kristin) would choose a day in December to see all the Christmas sights in the city. With everything going on, I was so sure that I would not be in NYC at all the rest of this year. But Alexa and I have been keeping up with our monthly hangouts alternating between NJ and Queens but for December, we decided to venture in to Manhattan bright and early so we could see some of the festivities while avoiding the crowds. It ended up being the perfect plan with the perfect weather. 

And yes, we coordinated by wearing holiday tartan face masks and green tops. But because we're us, we both showed up wearing the same exact thing: green turtle/mock neck tops, black jeans and black boots. Thank goodness we didn't wear the same wool coats 😂

We met at Bryant Park at 9:30AM and there was hardly anyone around, which again was perfect! Across the street, Angelina Paris (which we loved during our trip last year) just opened up a couple weeks ago in NY so of course that had to be our breakfast spot. Neither of us feel comfortable with indoor dining though so we picked up our food to go and chose one of the many spaced out tables at the park to eat. 

After that, it was pretty much us walking for hours to see all the sights. Our first stop was the New York Public Library because Alexa mentioned that they put wreaths and face masks on their iconic lions, which I had to see. From there we went to Saks Fifth Avenue to see the window displays, which were beautiful and captured different moments of holiday celebration around New York. And then we saw our favorite Christmas tree in the city – the Lotte New York Palace one! When we got there, there were only 3 other people there which was amazing. I've never seen it so empty! So naturally we took a dozen photos and just admired how gorgeous the set up is. 

After seeing Lotte, we just walked along Fifth and Sixth Avenue to see all the different stores (Cartier, Dior), stopped by Grand Army Plaza, and found so many random holiday decor along the way. I had no idea midtown went all out like this! Or maybe I never noticed? To me it seemed like a lot more than usual but I'm not complaining. It was fun to see glittery Santa mailboxes, ornaments, teddy bears, presents, and more, randomly in the streets. And we even stopped by Rockefeller Center! Normally, we would never bother to go see it since it's absolute madness but it actually wasn't this time! They had circles on the floor that were 6ft apart and someone there to enforce social distancing. So each party had to stay within their circle to view the tree and take photos. It was pretty impressive. 

Then no outing of ours would be complete without a stop at a bookstore. It felt so good to go inside Kinokuniya! It's been too long. We each grabbed some manga, walked around, and then headed back to Bryant Park (which was a crowded mess by 1:30PM) to say goodbye and go our separate ways. 

I'm so happy we got this festive day together for our last in-person hangout this year. I'm actually tempted to say we should meet in NYC again next month instead of NJ because I've just missed this so much! 

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Have you to been to any of these spots?

And what's your favorite Christmas tree in New York?