It's Christmas Time in the City

The holidays are always my favorite time of year to be in New York.  The weather turns cold and crisp and trees and light displays start appearing everywhere as soon as Thanksgiving is done.  Tonight I headed out for my annual visit to midtown to see the holiday windows and the big tree before the hordes of tourists start descending upon the city.

We started in Bryant Park, where every year they set up a Christmas market selling a variety of crafts.  Unbeknownst to us, tonight was the lighting ceremony for the tree in the park, and we happened to stumble upon the festivities just before they started.  We got to see most of the dress rehearsal and stayed for half of the ceremony, until we couldn't feel our toes any more and had to move on.  The line up included ice skaters, performances by casts of a few Broadway shows and other musical numbers, not the least of which was a random appearance by the 90s group Wilson Phillips.

After leaving Bryant Park, we headed up to see the windows at Saks Fifth Avenue.  Traditionally the windows tell a story and have a cute Christmas theme.  This year, however, they were quite strange.  Apparently the theme was "The Snowflake and the Bubble," but we couldn't ascertain any sort of story line or really anything that had anything to do with Christmas or winter or the holidays.  Each of the windows involved some kind of animal, bubbles, a mannequin and a somewhat creepy child doll.  Also unrelated to Christmas, one of the windows featured a dress worn by Lady Gaga.  It was all very bizarre and left us feeling rather confused.

While the windows were not very satisfying, we did get to see an impressive, huge ice sculpture menorah on our walk up Fifth Avenue.

And unlike the Saks windows, the decorations at Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall were wonderful, as always.

We wrapped up the evening at a cozy little Russian restaurant called Uncle Vanya, one of my favorites in the city.  The restaurant was warm and the food was delicious and we finally regained feeling in our fingers and toes.

And now I officially have the Christmas spirit and am ready for the holiday parties to begin.  Now if only I can channel that spirit into finishing my Christmas shopping....