Christmas in New York City

Ho ho ho!

Sunday was declared a day of rest.

After all the days of walking and looking and shopping we decided we needed a day to chill. Of course this was very disappointing to the teenagers but Tracey and I insisted. On Christmas morning we slept in till after 9am (a far cry from the Christmas mornings of not-that-many-years-ago), had breakfast, handed out Christmas presents, watched TV, surfed the web, read books, and just relaxed.

We had a sensational Christmas dinner of roast chicken and vegies followed by apple pie and ice cream and after all that ... we relaxed some more.

By about 3pm the teenagers were begging to go out so we headed into town to visit St Patricks Cathedral and also look at the Christmas lights. One thing I have noticed is the Americans do Christmas really well, not sure if it is the cold weather or tradition but everyone really gets into it. The shops are beautifully decorated and everyone is right into the whole 'Happy Holidays' thing.

We caught the subway to 42nd Street and headed down towards 5th Avenue and St Patricks.

Being Christmas day and pretty cool weather one would have thought the city would have been pretty empty - boy was that wrong. It was packed. Of course most of the shops were closed but the footpaths were jammed with people out walking. The crowds were not helped by lots of people flogging knock-off Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and various other brand hand bags. They spread them out on sheets on the footpath so they can pick up and run very quickly if the Authorities turn up. We dropped into St Pats where a Mass was happening ... in Spanish. We lit a couple of candles and pushed our way through the crowds and out the door.

The Rockerfeller Centre was also crowded so we took a few distance photos of the Christmas Tree and moved on.

The Cartier, Fendi, Tommy Hilfiger buildings were all lit up - the pictures below show the lights and the crowds. There were a couple of shops open, most importantly the Lindt chocolate shop so we had to drop in to sample the wares - you get a free one for walking in the door! Across the road is the shop that strikes sheer terror into most males - the De Beers diamond shop. Sadly it was closed so we moved on ... quickly.

We walked up 5th to Central Park and found the FAO Schwarz toy shop which had been on our list to visit. Then we walked across the southern end of Central Park to Columbus Circle and caught the subway home.

Of course Chinatown was all happening, no one would have thought it was Christmas Day as everything was open as normal.

A quiet day.

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