Carl Schurz Park | renaissancerunnergirl

I’m often asked what the best time of year is to be in New York City. The answer, without a doubt, is the holiday season. The month from Thanksgiving to New Year’s can be cold and wet, but even so it is the time the city puts its best face forward to the world. There is nothing more magical than being out on Park Avenue in a residential area in the evening as a light snow begins to fall, blanketing the surrounding streets in white as the twinkling lights strung around the trees on the median sparkle, reflecting the whiteness and making the shadows dance. I admit that come morning, that blanket of white will be a messy puddle of gray making the commute most unpleasant, but your commute will probably be unpleasant if it’s hot and muggy in July or sheets of sleet are coming down in February, and during the holidays you at least get some decorations to make up for it!

Decorations on Park Avenue

The lights on East End Avenue

Many of the avenues are set aglow with sparkling white lights. Of course, everyone wants to see the tree at Rockefeller Center, but I think it’s just as wonderful to have a little holiday cheer spread around the rest of the city’s neighborhoods.

The halls of all the city’s grandest buildings are decked to the fullest, as well as the pathways that lead to them.

Trees light up College Walk at Columbia University

Even the smaller green areas boast decorated trees. The one below is my favorite because it reminds me of the Christmas tree I spent the most time up close with as a child, the tree in the Nutcracker (although this one doesn’t magically grow as Marie battles giant mice onstage!)

Carl Schurz Park in Yorkville

Sometimes there are surprises to be found in regular buildings, whether shops, schools, synagogues and churches, or museums. Candles, presents, menorahs and dreidels – I’ve seen it all!