Christmas in New York

On Christmas Day of last year, I surprised my youngest daughter her dream trip on Christmas morning! This child has been asking to go to New York City for years! So after months of planning every single detail, it was finally time to go! I’m going to skip the part about the Southwest day after Christmas debacle, where every flight was cancelled and we arrived by car, plane AND train, but we made it. Ps If you have the option to hop a train… we loved it!

For starters, we stayed at the Lotte Palace Hotel in New York. The home of where Gossip Girl was filmed. (I am a fan) It was decorated to the nines for Christmas and I loved it there. I booked through AmEx travel and got a free upgrade. And what a beautiful view we had!

Our first day began, and first on the list was shopping in Greenwich Village. She had some Christmas money to spend and some birthday shopping to do! This place is full of all kinds of cool stores, from vintage book stores, to Vintage clothing stores, boutiques, and of course the oh so popular Love Shack Fancy, and Stoney Clover. We enjoyed our morning in this area. After shopping here, we started shopping in Soho. This is the ultimate shopping area. THEY HAVE EVERYTHING.

We went back to the hotel to drop our bags, checked out Grand Central Station (which is so cool and busy) but we have seen so many movies shot there so it was so awesome to see. It is just as busy as the movies show. We headed out to our next activity.

The Summit One Vanderbilt. This place was so cool. If you want to see some great views of New York definitely put this one on your list. There are several stories with different views and photo opportunities, and even the glass floor. This observation deck is a must do. I think tickets were about 50.00 a person, and we went for sunset, so we were able to be there for daytime and night. It was a beautiful sunset.

Next on the list was to see the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular. I don’t know how to explain it. It was everything I could imagine! There is no cameras or photography allowed, but I snuck a picture. On the way to the Radio City Music Hall, we of course had to see the tree in Rockefeller Center! It was magical, and crazy busy!

The Saks light show and the Cartier building, all the buildings are festive and lit up. It is a little bit of Christmas heaven.

We had a quick dinner at Smith and Wollensky grill, which is not fancy, but the same food as the steakhouse and much cheaper then headed to bed.

The next morning we headed to the Louis Vuitton Pop up shop! This was free and quick to go through. I had a reservation, but I think you can just walk in. I am not a super artsy person, so I didn’t understand half of it, but it was a super cute photo spot!

If you ever go at Christmas time you have to just browse the windows on 5th avenue. All the fancy stores are decorated to the 9s. . We shopped at Tiffany’s it was a fun and quite fancy experience! Tiffany & Co is always decorated beautifully.

We had lunch at Trump Tower, which was delicious and as gold as you can imagine, then headed to Central Park for a horse and carriage tour. You do not have to plan in advance for a tour but it is much cheaper to go through Viator and book it versus walking up to one and jumping on. This is a New York staple. Everyone must do it once. You’ll learn a lot about the park and they will point out countless spots popular movies were filmed!

We then headed to Times Square and walked around, we ran into an inspiring photographer who got some great shots of us. You only had to pay per picture if you liked them. Do this is you can, you will love them.

We both love Broadway shows, so we were anxiously ready for our favorite part of the day. Chicago on Broadway! it was awesome. It is often a sold out show so catch tickets in advance! I can’t talk enough about how I loved it.

We had dinner at the Meatball shop which is one of my favorite places to eat in New York. You order different types of meatballs with different sauces. I mean who doesn’t love meatballs?

The next day, we headed out to China Town. We ate dim sum in China town and it was amazing! I could not tell you the name, nor could I pronounce it but there will be a line and if you go there you have to eat there! We walked around China Town, Little Italy, then stumbled into a Christmas store.

After a day of walking around I had lunch planned for us in a bubble! A heated bubble at that. This was in the Wall Street area. It was called Route 66 and it was very good! We also ran by the 911 museum and looked at the fountains. It was sold out, and I never planned to fit it in. I have been before and it is a must do! Incredible.

Some of the best free views of the city is the 230 fifth rooftop bar. 100 percent! Kids are allowed on the weekdays so we snuck up there for a drink and a picture!

We wanted to actually visit the Empire State Building so we did do that too. I suggest buying the fast pass. We didn’t have a lot of time bc of our dinner reservations so we were able to get in for some great views and get out without waiting in line.

We had dinner at the Beetle House, which is Tim Burton’s Restaurant. This is a themed restaurant with a singer staff in character. It was a little expensive but I guess you pay for the experience. The food was even a little weird (my grits looks like its bleeding) but I guess to be expected. Overall, we loved it.

The next morning was the last day! You can’t leave without getting New York’s Most expensive donut (10.00). It was actually a really good cream filled donut.

I had plans to ice skate in Rockefeller Center, but my kid was a hard no due to cheer season. So we compromised and rented this cute little cabin while we drank hot chocolate, took a breather and watched people bust ice skating. We laughed for 30 minutes straight.

We ended the trip with another Broadway Show- Beetlejuice. OMG It was soo good! I even forgot the whole point of the movie it has been so long. But now I have got to watch it again because the Broadway was amazing. Side note: I think this week is the final week.

It was finally time to say Goodbye to NYC! We hopped up to the top of the Knickerbocker for some good bye views. We were able to see where the ball was going to be dropped (the ball is super tiny by the way) and momma had her final glass of wine. This is another awesome spot for views.

Without a doubt the most memorable trip. And by the time it was over I forgot about what it took to get there. I would do it again 10/10. Oh and Southwest refunded me for all the extras fees it took me to get there, and gave me a ton of points!