New York at Christmas | Clarence & Pinafor

The guide

New York

Christmas trip · New York City, USA

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, sparkling against the night sky.

Getting there

New York at Christmas is made for a college-break trip — Amtrak rolls into Penn Station and Moynihan Train Hall from all over the Northeast, and plenty of students just pile into a car and drive down. From JFK, take the AirTrain to the subway; from Newark, NJ Transit runs to Penn Station in Manhattan. Bryant Park Winter Village sits in Midtown between 5th and 6th Avenues; the Union Square Holiday Market is downtown at 14th Street. The subway connects everything.

Famous for

New York does Christmas bigger than anywhere. Bryant Park Winter Village opened in 2002 with around 180 little shops around a 17,000-square-foot ice rink — and the rink is free if you bring your own skates (it was added in 2005). Across town, the Union Square Holiday Market has run since 1993, when Eldon Scott of Urbanspace brought the German Christkindlmarkt idea to Manhattan; its red-and-white booths hold more than 150 vendors selling handmade gifts and treats.

The Plaza Hotel in a snowstorm — New York does Christmas like nowhere else.

Where to eat

Warm pretzels with mustard, cups of hot chocolate, roasted nuts, and German sausages at the market stalls. For a proper sit-down meal afterwards, New York pizza by the slice is a few streets away wherever you are — and a classic deli bagel makes the perfect breakfast before a day of markets.

What to do

Skate (or watch the skaters) at Bryant Park, browse the Union Square stalls, look up at the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and wander through Grand Central Terminal — its Holiday Fair fills Vanderbilt Hall, and the famous four-sided clock is worth the trip alone. Fifth Avenue's department-store windows and a snowy walk in Central Park finish the day.

The famous four-sided clock at Grand Central Terminal.

Warm pretzels — the perfect market snack.

Jess's favourite

Central Park Zoo

Jess's favourite: the Central Park Zoo, open all year on the east side of the park. In winter the snow leopards, red pandas and Japanese snow monkeys are at their liveliest — and the penguins and polar bears don't mind the cold one bit.

Good to know: both markets are free to enter — you only pay for what you eat and buy. Bryant Park's rink is free with your own skates; skate hire costs extra. Go on a weekday morning for the quietest browsing.

Jess always checked the market dates on the official websites before travelling — opening days can shift from year to year. And give yourself plenty of time on the subway in December.

Read Jess's diary of the day ↓

Jess's Christmas Adventures · Diary No. 6

New York: Skates, Pretzels, and One Very Tall Tree

Christmas, nine years ago

I rode the train down to New York for the weekend, and New York said hello the best way it knows how: with snow. Real, swirling, movie snow, all over Fifth Avenue. I stood under the Rockefeller Center tree with my mouth open like a tourist — because I was a tourist, and I didn't care one bit.

Bryant Park was first. The Winter Village has been there since 2002, and it shows in the best way: about 180 little shops in a ring around the ice rink, everyone selling something handmade. I watched the skaters for ages — the rink is free if you bring your own skates, which half of New York apparently does.

Then downtown to Union Square, the older market, running since 1993. The red-and-white booths go on and on, and I did exactly what you're supposed to do: I ate a warm pretzel, drank hot chocolate, and bought a present I definitely didn't need. (It was a tiny wooden hedgehog. Clarence has a new friend.)

Grand Central Terminal stopped me in my tracks. That famous clock, four golden faces, with a hundred thousand people streaming past it like it was nothing. I stood under it for a full five minutes just watching. Some places are busy; Grand Central is alive.

By evening the snow was falling harder and the Plaza Hotel looked like a film set. I walked back through Central Park with snow on my shoulders, thinking: back home we did Christmas quietly, but New York does it loudly. And sometimes loudly is exactly right.

Barnaby's text“Some cities whisper Christmas, and some sing it from the rooftops. New York sings, my dear — and you were wise to sing along.”

— Jess

↑ Back to the New York guide