New York City is a magical place to visit over the Christmas holidays and New Year and is a classic winter destination. It’s featured in so many family Christmas movies over the years that kids will also love visiting and there are loads of family friendly activities to make wonderful memories together.

Rockefeller Centre

First off lets start with the Rockefeller Centre. The Rockefeller centre tree is probably the most iconic image of New York at Christmas time and as a result it’s a must do. It towers above the hoards of crowds below and the lights are truly breathtaking complete with a Swarovski crystal star on top. Gifted from Norway each year, and first lit in early December, the tree stays in place until early January. It’s lit at 5am each morning through until midnight. If you’re struggling with jet lag its worth coming down here early to see the lights come on and get your pictures in peace before the crowds descend as it does get incredibly busy here.

One alternative is to book ice skating here to help you get some pictures – this is what we did at 7am on our first morning and got some brilliant pictures without the crowds. We’ll talk more about this in a moment. Another alternative is to pay for official photos here, but to be honest if you’re paying for these you might as well pay for the ice skating. Other guests were always willing to take pictures for each other down on the ice. A further alternative if you want to splash out is to book an igloo here for drinks although these were on the pricey side.

Located around the Rockefeller Centre are several other Christmassy activities including on 5th Avenue and Radio City (see below).

Ice Skating

Moving onto Ice Skating – a very popular and iconic activity in New York at this time of year. You’ve got several main locations to give this a go. The main 3 being the Rockefeller Centre, the Wollman Rink in central park and Bryant Park, with other lesser known options including at the Oculus and Brookfield place, both downtown in the financial district.

Starting with Bryant Park, this is perhaps your best value option with it being free if you bring your own skates. However its probably the least iconic of the 3 locations. Still it is in a great location with Bryant Park being a key Christmas location in new York, complete with the rink and Christmas markets which we’ll talk more about shortly. It’s also located behind the New York Public Library, a spectacular building, and just off 5th Avenue, another great Christmas experience.

Next up is Wollman Rink – a New York icon located in central park and as seen in Home Alone 2 and countless other movies. It’s located at the foot of central park so provides for amazing skyline views and pictures. It’s also the biggest of the 3 rinks so looks to be the most relaxing experience. We were planning to give this a go on our most recent trip but the kids twisted our arm on the Rockefeller Centre.

The Rockefeller Centre is a beautiful location and ice rink. Down at the foot of the tree it’s just amazing to skate here and get your pictures with the tree. It will set you back though - £185 for a family of 4 for an hour and skate rental, although they didn’t look to be monitoring time so we could have stayed longer if we wanted. We booked for 7am at opening on our first morning to take advantage of the jet lag and get some time when the area was quieter. This really paid off as it made it a more relaxed experience with some great pictures. Despite the cost, we really would recommend skating here. We’ve done it several times now and made some really special family memories here.

Note that the ice rinks often open very early – around October time and last through to March. So you don’t need to be here over Christmas to enjoy them.

Christmas Markets

In recent years New York has made great strides with its Christmas Market scene and now has around half a dozen main locations you can enjoy. These really add to the festive spirit although its worth keeping in mind that most of them are run by the same company and so are pretty similar. Still it’s fun to explore them all and we enjoyed several on our latest trip.

The first and best is Bryant Park. The whole area is taken over by the market, an ice rink as we’ve just mentioned above, and a massive Christmas tree. It has a few indoor areas including an indoor bar and viewing area where you can escape the cold a little. It then has a great array of stalls selling souvenirs and food, albeit at inflated prices. For example 3 jacket potatoes set us back nearly $70 just to give you a feel. They were very nice jacket potatoes but still.... There are a great range of Christmas decorations on sale here, many of which you can get personalised and we’ve got a couple on our tree at home from our various different visits.

You’ve then got a much smaller market on Columbus Circle in the bottom left corner of central park. This is mainly just a collection of stalls and we did have a brief wander but these are very similar to those in Bryant Park.

Another which is on the smaller side, but that we enjoyed is Macys Holiday Square which is located at Herald and Greely squares – pretty much opposite each other outside of Macys and under the shadow of the Empire State building. Again this includes the usual array of stalls but new this year at Greely square was also a lovely double decker carousel which was a nice touch. Make sure to pop into Macys and the basement as they also have an indoor holiday market too.

Other Christmas markets worth a mention, but which we didn’t get an opportunity to visit include Union Square – which we’d heard was one of the better markets on offer but which ended before we arrived on 28th December. Another is Grand Central Christmas Market, officially the Grand Central Holiday Fair, an indoor holiday market held in Vanderbilt Hall which is a brilliant venue, but which ends on Christmas Eve. And finally the market in the Oculus downtown – a new addition to the city and a spectacular building – it’s definitely worth a walk through, even more so with a Christmas market here.

Christmas Trees & Decorations

One of the best and obvious aspects of visiting New York over Christmas is the decorations. They really light up the city and give a magical and special atmosphere that we just love. It has to be one of the most impressive collections of Christmas trees anywhere, which we’ve narrowed down to our top 10 that we enjoyed during our visit.

Rockefeller Centre - probably the best known image of New York at Christmastime. Just iconic. Don’t miss this.
New York Palace - this one is absolutely spectacular. We got some wonderful family pictures here and this was always busy with tourists. Don’t miss this one.
Wall Street and the New York Stock Exchange - one of the most impressive trees in the city located outside the stock exchange building. A really cool tree to stop by, even during the day.
Avenue of the Americas – located near Radio City Music Hall and the other decorations here so an easy one to stop by. It is a beautiful tree.
New York Public Library – a lovely, less flashy, more traditional tree right in the lobby of the library. Its free to enter and the building is amazing so don’t miss this one.
Bryant Park – located smack bang in the middle of the park and the Christmas markets. A lovely tree and a great backdrop.
South Street Seaport – another impressive tree, this one located in the cobbled streets of south street seaport. We have a real soft spot for this area but it is generally more fun in warmer weather.
Washington Square Park – an impressive tree set against the iconic arch. If you’re spending any time in the village you’ll no doubt stop by here and see this.
Madison Square Park – we only saw this from a distance during the day so probably didn’t give it the attention we could have. Nevertheless its another one for the list.
Hudson Yards - more of a collection of smaller trees with other decorations rather than one big tree. These are located down in front of the Vessel and provide a fun addition to the festive spirit.

Aside from the trees the city is all done up for the holidays. Even just wandering the streets, particularly down in Greenwich village, the houses have lovely decorations outside which are nice to see. However others you might want to stop by include those around Radio City including the giant candy canes and baubles, and the shops at both Columbus Circle and Hudson Yards, both of which have impressive light displays. Also don’t forget to spy the Empire State building and Grand Central Station, both lit up green and red for the holidays.

Window Displays

Another nice aspect to New York at this time of year is the Christmas window displays in some of the big department stores. These are nice to see and a lovely festive addition. Some of the big hitters being Macys, Bergdorf Goodman and Saks. Fifth Avenue in particular goes all out with some of the buildings themselves being decorated such as Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Saks. Don’t miss the Saks light show. This is a short light and sound show projected onto the front of the store opposite the Rockefeller Centre. This means it does get incredibly busy in this little spot. However it’s only short and takes place every 10 minutes from around 5pm, so its easy to catch and we really enjoyed it.

Many of the stores are all done up for Christmas so you really do get into the Christmas spirit going from store to store. Our favourite, and one that’s a must do for families is Macy’s. I’ve already mentioned the window displays and the markets outside in Herald and Greely Squares. However inside is a Christmas paradise too. As well as being a great place to meet Santa before Christmas, it has an amazing array of decorations on sale and its own Christmas markets area in the basement – think an indoor version of the other markets located around the city, selling snacks, decorations and other gifts and souvenirs. Macys also has a fun mezzanine area with pop up areas and stores which when we visited included areas themed around Marvel, Disney, NBA, the thanksgiving day parade and a sweet shop, so we had a great time here. If you have little ones, head on upstairs to Toys R Us, taking over a massive space with an amazing array of toys and a little play area. This is a must do for families. On the way up also don’t miss the original wooden escalators and don’t forget to recreate the escalator scene from Elf.

Central Park

Moving on uptown to Central Park, this is definitely somewhere to visit no matter the time of year, but in winter its even more magical – particularly if its snowed. We were fortunate enough to catch a bit of snow on the evening we arrived and quickly headed out into the park. Covered in snow and frost the park looks absolutely magical. We found a small hill in the bottom right corner of the park next to the pond where kids were sliding down the slopes on sleds and even carrier bags. We had a wonderful time and made some core memories so if it snows make sure to make the most of it, even if you just go for a walk to take in the scenery.

Christmas Shows

There are a couple of different festive shows you can enjoy while in New York. The most famous one being the Rockettes show at Radio City Music Hall. This is a famous Christmas Spectacular that has been a beloved tradition for decades. The show features the world-renowned Rockettes performing their iconic high-kick routines, dazzling dancing, and a series of festive scenes that capture the magic of the season. With elaborate costumes, stunning effects, and classic songs, it’s a truly wonderful experience, particularly for little ones. The venue is really spectacular too, it was fantastic to enjoy a show inside Radio City Music Hall so this should be high on your list. Note that there are several shows a day, so you can usually get tickets last minute – including from TKTS in Time Square.

As well as this we also noticed a Christmas themed Circue du Soleil show running at Madison Square Garden, and some years there is also a Broadway adaptation of the movie Elf so keep an eye out for that. Lastly if you prefer something a little more sophisticated check out the Nutcracker Ballet over at the Lincoln Centre. We quite fancied this but didn’t think the kids would appreciate it on this occasion.

Other Notable Mentions

And finally a few other bits to note which we didn’t have time for but might be worth considering if you have time. Firstly Christmas restaurants and bars. Around this time of year there are numerous venues decked out offering festive menus which you’ll no doubt have seen on social media. These look like a lot of fun but can be pricey and busy with long queues. Hence we didn’t try one this time – but worth considering nonetheless.

And lastly somewhere else we kept reading about was Dyker Heights – an area in the suburbs renowned for its spectacular Christmas decorations. You can book a tour which includes this if you want to enjoy them but we just couldn’t fit this in.

New Years Eve

With the kids still being relatively young, being here for New Years Eve wasn’t a big priority for us. That being said, given we were here we wanted to enjoy it and make the most of the opportunity. How often in your life do you get to spend New Years Eve in one of the most exciting cities in the world!

We did a tonne of research on how we could spend the night and we’ve done a vlog (linked below) on how we spent our night and some of our mistakes and pitfalls. However we’ve summarised the main options below.

Times Square

World famous for its ball drop, the confetti, the performances - this is obviously where we started looking. However it involves queuing from mid-morning and then wearing nappies because there are no toilets. So this was hard pass from us.
Hotels and Parties

One option is to book a stay with a view over Times Square - however you’ll have to pay a crazy premium and book well in advance. An alternative is to go to one of the many parties around the city. If you pick one in Times Square these sometimes come with ball drop views. However again these are pricey and not particularly kid-friendly as you might expect.
Harbour cruise

A slightly more family friendly option is to take a cruise on the Hudson and there seemed to be plenty of options available. We found one with Circle Line that we particularly liked the look of. However like most of these they come with an open bar and so remain on the pricey side.

Brooklyn Bridge

This famous suspension bridge connects Manhattan and Brooklyn and is a great place for kids to explore with a pedestrian walkway offering beautiful views of the city and river. Walking across the bridge is a really fun family activity and is completely free which is always a winner!
Times Square

Take in the dazzling light and bustling crowds in NYC’s heart. There are so many great shops that kids will love here including The Disney Store, Hershey’s Chocolate World, It’Sugar, Line Friends M&M’s World and Pelé Soccer. Lots of great restaurant choices here too - The Olive Garden has a great view down into Times Square.
The High Line

The High Line is a iconic urban park which provides visitors with unique experiences, spectacular view and it’s a great family-friendly adventure! From lush gardens to creative art installations there are also many interactive exhibits here. It takes between 30 mins to 2 hours to walk in full depending on what you make of it but you can just walk a part of it if you want! We did the whole thing this time stopping at Chelsea Market for lunch and ending at Hudson Yards for some treats at Dylan’s Candy Store!

Shopping

We can’t talk about the city and not mention the shopping! This city has absolutely everything you could need and there are some great stores specifically when planning trips with kids. We’ve already mentioned FAO Schwarz (at the Rockefeller Center) and some of the big Times Square stores (Disney Store, M&M’s World, Hersheys and more) but there are so many other great shops for families. Out of the big department stores our favourite for families is Macy’s Herald Square. This has a Toys ‘R’ Us section and at Christmas it has the magical winter wonderland where you can meet Santa (and made famous in films such as Elf and Miracle on 34th Street). 5th Avenue not only has the best fashion shops but includes The Lego Store, NBA Store and American Girl Doll Store - both of which are huge hits with kids. If you’re after a great kids book store then check out Books of Wonder (close to the Flatiron Building) which is a fantastic independent bookstore which focusses entirely on classic and new children’s books. We also all love Dylan’s Candy Bar which is a great spot to get some sweet treats.