The holiday season is here, and there's no shortage of fun events and sights to reach via public transit. From dazzling light displays and model train shows to giant trees and menorahs to classic dance and musical performances and seasonal cinema, there’s something for everyone to enjoy. Here are our picks for the 15 things to get on your calendar this holiday season.
Holiday markets are a New York mainstay and a great place to grab small gifts and stocking stuffers for friends and family from local vendors offering everything from handmade ornaments to custom socks to fancy cheeses and chocolates. You can find the biggest ones in Grand Central Terminal, Union Square, Columbus Circle, and Bryant Park (where you can also go ice skating); check out our full guide to holiday markets here.
Want to be dazzled by holiday lights? Dyker Heights in southwest Brooklyn is the undisputed champion of Christmas decor in the city, as houses compete with each other to put up the most over-the-top displays. The neighborhood is a 15-20-minute walk from the nearest subway station, though bus service will get you closer. The Bronx Zoo will hold its annual Holiday Lights festival starting November 22nd, with lantern trails and animated sculptures of its many animal residents. Near Prospect Park, the Brooklyn Botanic Garden will host Lightscape, an after-dark light installation and trail through the garden, also beginning on November 22nd.
Midtown Manhattan is full of Christmas spirit. Kids can meet Santa Claus in Santaland, located on the eighth floor of Macy’s flagship store in Herald Square, starting on November 28th. While entry is free, reservations are a must if you want to take part. You can also browse Macy’s iconic window displays along Sixth Avenue — no reservation required — or check out the decorations along Fifth Avenue. And in Rockefeller Center, the annual Christmas tree lighting is one of the city’s biggest holiday attractions. That will take place on Wednesday, December 4th; attendance is free. If you’d rather avoid the crush, you can visit the tree through mid-January; it’ll be lit up from 5:00 a.m. until midnight every day.
Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s 1892 ballet The Nutcracker is a holiday staple, with the most famous American staging first performed by the New York City Ballet in 1954. The company has made The Nutcracker an annual tradition, with this year’s performances beginning on November 29th and running through January 4th, on stage at Lincoln Center; you can purchase tickets here.
Can you call yourself a true New Yorker if you’ve never been a holiday train show? The New York Botanical Garden’s enormous model train display is a huge hit annually with kids and families, winding its way through the NYBG’s conservatory and greenhouses with miniature mockups of New York landmarks. Plus, this year there'll be special night editions of the Holiday Train Show for the 21-and-up crowd featuring music and drinks. You can also head to Grand Central Terminal for the New York Transit Museum’s show, featuring Metro-North trains, vintage subway cars, and the Polar Express on two levels of track stretching 34 feet around miniature New York landmarks, including a scale-sized Grand Central. The trains can be seen at the Transit Museum’s store inside GCT.
Not all Christmas trees need to be real to be special. Case in point: the American Natural History Museum’s Origami Tree, made up of more than 1,000 pieces of folded paper. This year’s tree, which is called “Jumping for Joy,” is themed around animals that hop, bounce and leap and will go on display starting November 25th in the Futter Gallery on the museum’s first floor. Over at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, their tree comes complete with an 18th-century Neapolitan nativity at its base and can be found in the Medieval Sculpture Hall in front of an 18th-century Spanish choir screen.
This holiday season includes dueling giant menorahs in Brooklyn and Manhattan. In the former, Chabad of Park Slope will kick off Hanukkah celebrations on December 25th by lighting its 32-foot-tall menorah in Grand Army Plaza, accompanied by live music, latkes, and gifts for the kids. Not to be outdone, Central Park will light its own 36-foot-tall menorah in its own Grand Army Plaza. Whichever you choose, you’re sure to have a good time. Both events are free to attend.
The New York Philharmonic is hitting both ends of the holiday spectrum in December. First, they’ll perform George Frideric Handel’s Messiah, composed in 1741 and a regular part of Christmas season celebrations. Then they’ll flip the script with Elf in Concert, screening the 2003 Christmas film with a live performance of the score. Get tickets to either or both here.
Nothing says Christmas in New York like basketball at Madison Square Garden. This year, the Knicks will take on superstar second-year player Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs, with tip-off scheduled for noon. Purchase your tickets here.
Finally, a holiday display that you can eat. Make your way to the Museum of the City of New York to see what the five boroughs look like in cookie form in Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off. And you can help select the winner among the five bakers who built these edible Gotham cityscapes.
There’s no time like the holidays to take a tour of one of New York’s grand historical estates in Westchester, the Hudson Valley, or on Long Island’s Gold Coast when they’re decked out in their finest Christmas accoutrements. Yonkers’ Glenview Mansion, which appears in the first two seasons of HBO’s The Gilded Age, will show off its period Christmas decorations from Fridays through Wednesdays in December. Tarrytown’s Lyndhurst Mansion is doing special holiday tours on Tuesdays through Thursdays in December, along with holiday tea on December 7th and 8th. The Armour-Stiner Octagon House near Irvington is adding Victorian Christmas-themed tours during December, Thursdays through Mondays, as well as an immersive tour based on Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol which will run December 12-14 and 19-21. Coe Hall at Planting Fields Arboretum in Oyster Bay will host Home for the Holidays, their annual two-day Christmas celebration featuring live music, arts and crafts, and a visit from the Grinch, on December 14th and 15th. Old Westbury Gardens in Westbury has a full calendar of holiday events, including a First Night celebration with tree lighting on December 6th, plus weekend holiday markets and self-guided tours of the mansion featuring special visits from Santa. And Oheka Castle near Woodbury is hosting special holiday meals, including brunch with Santa and Mrs. Claus for the kids on December 14th, a formal Christmas Eve dinner, and a Christmas Day brunch.
Cozy up with a bucket of popcorn and one of Hollywood’s best Christmas movies, It’s A Wonderful Life, at two historic venues in the Hudson Valley. In Pleasantville, the Jacob Burns Film Center will be screening the Jimmy Stewart classic on December 19th and 22nd as part of a month filled with Christmas movies. In Tarrytown, the Tarrytown Music Hall will show the movie on December 23rd. If you’re on Long Island, the Suffolk in Riverhead has a Wonderful Life screening on December 22nd.
All aboard the Polar Express! Families can create their own special holiday train experience, complete with a visit from Santa and a screening of The Polar Express, aboard an early-20th-century LIRR train car in Port Jefferson Station on select weekends throughout December. At the Danbury Railway Museum in Connecticut, meanwhile, kids can ride a restored 1950s rail diesel car through the historic railyard before a meet-and-greet with Santa, including personalized gift-giving, on select weekends in December.
Tis the season for ghosts — those of Christmas Past, Present and Future, to be precise. At Lyndhurst in Tarrytown, you can catch “Mr. Dickens Tells A Christmas Carol,” a one-man show in which actor Michael Muldoon recreates Charles Dickens’ own 1867 performance tour. For a spookier retelling, grab a seat at the Old Dutch Church in Sleepy Hollow for a solo show by actor Jonathan Kruk with musical accompaniment. Out on Long Island, you can get your Dickens with a side of song and dance at Babylon’s Argyle Theatre in a musical version of A Christmas Carol — and you can save $10 on tickets through MTA Away, too!
The Santas will be on the march in Port Jefferson on December 1st at this year’s Santa Parade and Visit, which will run from the Port Jefferson train station down Main Street to the Port Jefferson Village Center, followed by the chance to sit in Santa’s lap. For an even bigger spectacle, make your way to Freeport for their annual Nautical Mile of Lights Boat Parade on December 7th, with boat owners festooning their crafts with lights and decorations for a procession down Randall Bay. And in Long Beach, there’ll be antique cars, fire trucks, bicycles and floats dressed up for the holidays for the annual Electric Light Parade on December 14th, taking place in the town’s west end.
For more, check out our events calendar!
