NYC Gets Ready for the Holidays

Halloween is just the start of the holiday season, and NYC is already gearing up for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

Put these winter and holiday events on your radar screen for ice skating, holiday shows, holiday trees, holiday shopping and department store windows, and more, including the NYC Marathon this weekend.

Best places to watch the NYC Marathon.

Canstruction NYC 2018 opens Friday.

Ice Skating in Rockefeller Center

The iconic rink opened early in October, and there’s an extensive list of packages for skating, rentals, lessons, and deals including breakfast or afternoon tea.

General admission skating is first come first serve, for 90 minute sessions. Prices are $25-$33 for adults, $15 for children, and skate rental is $2.50.

If you want to ensure admission, you’ll have to pay extra for a skip-the-line reservation, which includes rentals. These are the 2018/2019 prices for the least expensive reservation:

Standard: $60 | October 13 – November 20, 2018
Holiday: $75 -$150 | November 21, 2018 – January 1, 2019
Standard: $60 – $75 | January 2 – February 24, 2019

The world famous and iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree will be lit for the first time on Wednesday, November 28, with live performances from 7pm–9pm, at Rockefeller Plaza. The tree will remain lit and can be viewed until 9pm on January 7, 2019.

Winter Village in Bryant Park

The ice skating rink and European-style outdoor market opened on Sat. Oct. 27. There are more than 170 vendors selling handmade craft items, many with a NYC theme, and they’ll be open for shopping through Sunday, Jan. 2, 2019.

New this year is The Lodge, a giant food hall modeled after Swiss chalets. There are some 40 food vendors, including 12 restaurants and a cocktail bar, offering both full meals and quick warm-up snacks.

Ice skating is FREE. Rentals cost $15, and the rink is open from 8am to 10pm daily, and will stay open through early March.

The annual tree lighting is Tuesday, Dec. 4, hosted by Broadway, TV and film star Alan Cumming, with the annual Skatetacular ice skating show featuring two-time Olympian Johnny Weir.

Santa and his helpers will be in residence Dec. 16-23.

AMNH Origami Holiday Tree

Monday, November 19–Sunday, January 13

An annual Museum tradition, the delightfully decorated Origami Holiday Tree and two merrily lit 19-foot Holiday Barosaurs welcome visitors to the Museum throughout the holiday season.

The theme of this year’s 13-foot tree is Oceans of Origami, with models inspired by the Museum’s special exhibition, featuring origami angelfish, lionfish, anglers, various sharks, whales, dolphins, tangs, eels, among other treasured models.

Volunteers, including local, national, and international origami artists, fold year-round, contributing to a collection of over 1,000 models displayed on the tree. Each year the 13-foot-tree features a different theme relating to special exhibitions or collections, which includes more than 34 million artifacts and specimens.

During the holiday season, volunteers will be on hand to teach visitors of all ages origami, the art of paper folding.

Holiday Train Show at NYBG

Explore the treasures of Lower Manhattan, the birthplace of New York City, at the annual Holiday Train Show® at the New York Botanical Garden. This year, 2018, the 27^th annual show, opening Saturday, November 17, 2018, and running – literally – through Monday, January 21, 2019.

The Holiday Train Show features more than 25 G-scale model trains, trolleys, and ferries that run along nearly a half-mile of track past re-creations of iconic sites from all five boroughs of New York City, the Hudson River Valley, and other locations in New York State. New this year are replicas of the historic Battery Maritime Building, vintage ferry boats, the Battery Park Control House, the Woolworth Building, One World Trade Center, the Oculus, and the Terminal Warehouse.

Anybody who loves trains – and isn’t that all of us – loves this show. FREE with NYBG admission.

Getting to NYBG

NYBG is just 20 minutes from Midtown Manhattan, via Metro-North Railroad, which offers an NYBG Getaway Package that includes an All-Garden Pass and a round-trip train ticket from Grand Central Terminal to the Botanical Garden Station. Purchase the package at any Metro-North ticket window or kiosk in Grand Central Terminal. Visit Metro-North Railroad for more details. All-Garden Pass tickets start at $23 for adults and $10 for children (ages 2–12) and differ during certain peak times and weekends. Members and children under 2 are free. Advance timed tickets are strongly recommended and are available at nybg.org.

We’ll be adding more NYC holiday events as we get them, so check back regularly.