New York City Streets

I just wanted to share a little of the Christmas spirit we saw over the holidays! Most of these pictures are from Christmas Eve Day when Brandon and I took the kids out on a Christmas Tree viewing hunt, as featured above. 

Rockefeller!

This is both creepy and gross to me, given my fear of mascot costumes and that the people underneath, here at least are peddlers and you have no idea where these suits have been, but Tori really wanted to give Dora some money to get something special. It took a couple tries before she really resolved to approaching her with her coins, but I was proud of her little Christmas generosity. 

An apartment building used this lot to display TONS of inflatable Christmas characters to view and explore. I love FREE fun!

Cartier

Macy's "Believe" and SantaLand. 

SantaLand is so worth a visit, so so so worth the visit. I had done my homework and luckily Brandon had a late morning at school so we were able to go early in the morning right when it opened and on a weekday. We stood in line for a total of 5 minutes (as opposed to the 1-2 hour wait on weekends), after which you enter this tunnel that simulates a moving train, where, VOILA! You arrive in this Christmas version of Disneyland's "It's a Small World." Dancing bears, ice skating penguins, Santa's life size sleigh loaded with toys, it is seriously SO magical! When you reach Santa's home, an elf greets you and you are able to go in for some one-on-one with the big guy. There are about 4 or 5 Santa's but since you go into a private room/cabin the kids don't know. Our Santa was awesome. Tori warmed up to him surprisingly fast, which if you know my daughter, rarely happens. Tori gave Santa a picture she had done all by herself (scribbles) that detailed the rather LARGE list of toys she would like, and Santa gave it to the elf, who promptly took it to the workshop for review. It was one of my favorite family outings thus far!

Apparently Bergdorf Goodman are THE window displays to see, and while they were extremely elaborate and beautiful, honestly, they were hardly my favorites.

Our favorite window at Bergdorf. 

Barney's, however, was super fun! They created a video display that followed  Minnie's day dream of getting a designer dress for Christmas that she struts on the runway. It ended with Mickey getting it for her. Presh!

Of course, it wouldn't be a runway without a cartoon Lady Gaga

Giant toy soldier!

And his platoon!

Giant ornaments in water

If I had to pick a favorite, Bloomingdales' windows were very cute and pretty much up my alley. They had a Cirque Du Soleil theme and all the displays moved. So the wrestlers below, the aerial dancers, they were all mechanical and were putting on a show for us. 

Something that I just can't brag enough about is that in New York you can find something on every street, which makes exploring and occasionally getting lost so fun! We walked by this building and noticed this huge display inside and FREE of charge no less. It was like SantaLand all over again but more rustic, which again, suits my fancy. 

There was also a pianist that my kids were mesmerized by! 

I would be lying if I said it was absolutely the most perfect, magical Christmas ever, but New York certainly helped me with any homesickness. I am so completely smitten by this city, and I suppose if you must be away from family on the holidays, this is certainly where I would want to be otherwise.