Winter in the City: A Long Weekend Guide to NYC in December
Giant Christmas ornaments in New York City
There is something magical about New York in December. The city is festooned with festive decorations, and anticipation for the upcoming holidays crackles through the air. The streets are quieter (by New York standards), and nearly everyone you encounter seems to walk with an extra spring in their step.
My husband and I traveled to New York this past December for a long weekend getaway, and here is how we spent our time in the Big Apple.
Day 1, Thursday: Arrival and Christmas Market
After a quick breakfast of egg sandwiches from a nearby bakery, we hailed an Uber to South Station, the Boston station from which our train to New York would depart. We arrived 20 minutes before our scheduled departure time of 10:20am and had the fortuitous timing of arriving just as our train pulled up to the platform. This allowed us to start queueing for boarding before the boarding announcement had even been made, which meant that we were among the first people to board the train (no bathroom-abutting seats for us). Our train left on time, and I passed the four-hour journey writing content for this blog.
Arriving at Penn Station
We rolled into Penn Station a little after 2:30pm, and our first order of business was to check into our hotel, the Chelsea Pines Inn. Fortunately, it was only a short, two-stop subway ride away, so we did not have to schlep our luggage around for too long. We did, however, have to schlep our luggage up four flights of stairs to our hotel room (gotta love New York walk-ups 😆). The room itself was unremarkable. There was a bed that took up the majority of the tiny space, a small television, and a no-frills bathroom. It was nothing to write home about, but we thought it would suffice. Come the following morning though, we would be singing a different, less upbeat tune.
Our room at the Chelsea Pines Inn
As it had been quite some time since we had eaten, we found a nearby spot to grab a quick and healthy lunch called Just Salad. We got our lunches to-go and ate them back in our hotel room while watching reruns of NCIS (not my favorite show, but with only 12 channels on our room’s television, beggars couldn’t be choosers).
My tasty lunch from Just Salad: a kale salad with quinoa, apples, sweet potatoes, almonds, goat cheese, and balsamic vinaigrette dressing
A little before 5:00pm, we bid farewell to Special Agent Gibbs and set out for Chama Mama, a Georgian restaurant at which we had a 5:15pm reservation. We would have preferred a later time, but it was either the early bird special inside the restaurant or a later, more standard dinner time in the outdoor seating area. Had it been about 40 degrees warmer and not raining, we likely would have opted for the latter, but because no amount of heat lamps or plastic tarps can make a near-freezing, drizzly night comfortable, we found ourselves dining in an almost-empty restaurant (although, it was anything but empty by the time we left).
Eagerly waiting for my food at Chama Mama
This was my first foray into Georgian cuisine, and I can safely say it won’t be my last. As neither my husband nor I were overly hungry due to our lunch, we decided to share three small plates: adjapsandali (a vegetable ragout comprising eggplant, zucchini, red bell pepper, and a blend of spices), crispy smashed potatoes, and lobiani (a pita-like bread filled with smashed beans). Each of the dishes was phenomenal, but the lobiani stole the spotlight from the other two. The flaky bread paired with the savory, buttery beans produced a dish so delicious that seconds were a forgone conclusion.
Lobiani and smashed potatoes
To wash everything down, we each ordered a wine flight, which contained samples of three Georgian wines. I selected white wines for mine, and my husband opted for amber wines, a type of wine neither of us had had before. After sampling his flight, I began to wish that I had followed his lead and ordered amber wines as well. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed my white wine flight, but those amber wines were something else.
We wrapped up our meal with a slice of honey cake for dessert. Like everything else we had eaten at Chama Mama, it was delectable.
Not ready to call it a night quite yet, we walked to the nearby Union Square Holiday Market after dinner. Inspired by European Christmas markets, this market featured over 100 booths staffed by local artisans and food vendors. Art prints, hand-carved goods, hot chocolate, jewelry, waffles, clothing – this market had a smattering of seemingly everything. Although we didn’t buy anything, we had a lot of fun perusing the various wares as we moseyed our way through the rows of stalls.
Hot chocolate stall
After seeing all that there was to see, we walked back to our hotel, where we watched the ending of Hitch on TV before falling asleep.
Day 2, Friday: Glasses, Tea, Yummy Food, and Broadway
We awoke bleary-eyed and wispy-tailed after what can only be described as an abysmal night’s sleep. I can only recall a handful of times that I have had worse sleep, and they all involved the stomach flu. What made our sleep so terrible? Thin walls and an overly enthusiastic heater. Our night was punctuated by the sounds of doors slamming, feet stomping, and people talking in the rooms abutting ours. Even when we were blessed with silence, I struggled to fall asleep, as our room felt like the Sahara.
Feeling like the living dead, we eventually dragged ourselves out of bed and strolled on over to Jack’s Wife Freda, where we had a 10:00am reservation. The bistro’s interior was small but inviting with colorful artwork on the walls and a long, family-style table in the center of the space.
Interior of Jack’s Wife Freda
The Mediterranean-inspired menu was teeming with tantalizing offerings, but I eventually settled on the green shakshuka. Although tasty, I do wish that the portions had been a bit larger. The dish came with two minuscule slices of challah toast, which was not a sufficient amount to accompany the eggs and tomatillo sauce. I ran out of bread partway through my meal, and while I was able to order more, it obviously did not arrive instantaneously, resulting in my food cooling slightly as I waited.
Green shakshuka from Jack’s Wife Freda
Desirous of a second cup of coffee (to keep our sleep deprivation at bay), we popped into a nearby location of 787 Coffee, a coffee shop that bills itself as “farm to cup,” after breakfast. They grow, process, and roast their own coffee on their farm in Puerto Rico, and the result of such attention to detail is a truly spectacular cup of joe bursting with flavor and freshness.
Inside 787 Coffee
Caffeinated, we then subway-ed our way to Grand Central Station – not to catch a train but rather to see an optometrist. My husband had forgotten his glasses, and as we were seeing a play that night (and he understandably wanted to see more than fuzzy figures prancing about the stage), he needed a new pair of glasses stat. Fortunately, the optometrist we found was able to have them ready within a few hours.
Inside Grand Central Station
While we waited for the glasses to be finished, we made our way back to Chelsea to have lunch at Tea and Sympathy, an English restaurant and tearoom. I ordered the vegetarian, lentil-based shepherd’s pie, and it was phenomenal – a perfect blend of butteriness and savoriness. As it would be sacrilegious to go to an English tearoom and not have tea, we did our duty and ordered a pot each of their English Breakfast and Earl Grey blends. Both of the teas were good, but as we discovered immediately upon their arrival, the teapots were not personal-sized. We had mistakenly assumed that each pot of tea would contain a single serving of tea; when the tea arrived, it became apparent that each pot was intended to be shared amongst several people. So, we found ourselves inundated with tea, which is not the worst problem to have.
My lunch - vegetarian shepherd’s pie
We closed out our meal at Tea and Sympathy with scones, jam, and clotted cream, one of mankind’s greatest creations. The scones topped with a dollop of clotted cream and a smear of jam were heavenly.
After we finished eating, we bopped on over to Tea and Sympathy’s English grocer, which is located right next door to the restaurant. They stock an assortment of English goodies, from digestives to Flake bars. I was hoping to find some Cornish wafers, but sadly, there were none to be had. They did, however, have another favorite British snack of mine: Tunnock’s teacakes.
In an apropos move, the weather turned rainy as we were preparing to leave the British grocer. With teacakes in hand, the smell of Earl Grey in the air, and rain pattering against the windows, I was momentarily transported across the pond, but a sudden burst of aggressive honking quickly divested me of that illusion.
Sheltered under my petite travel umbrella, we hurried back to the hotel to drop off our precious cargo (the teacakes, of course) before heading back to Grand Central Station to pick up my husband’s freshly minted glasses. With those in tow, we walked over to Rockefeller Center to see the most famous Christmas tree in the nation. We had just recently watched Home Alone 2, so seeing the tree in person was a fun treat. A word of warning though: Rockefeller Center is a very popular tourist spot (especially in December), so be ready for crowds if you visit.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!
From there, we strolled on over to the giant red ornaments at 1251 6th Avenue, where we unwittingly played a part in a couple’s engagement. A man asked us to record him and his girlfriend (under the guise of taking a photo of them), and he got down on one knee and proposed shortly thereafter. She said yes, and it felt wonderful to have played a part, albeit small, in their special moment.
We left the newly engaged couple to bask in their happiness and continued on our way to P.S. Kitchen, a vegan restaurant that we had eaten at (and loved) during a previous trip to New York. The “chicken” Caesar wrap and sweet potato fries, which I had been dreaming about ever since last having them, were every bit as delectable as I remembered. The only knock against our time at P.S. Kitchen was that we were seated by what proved to be a rather drafty window, which did not pair well with our rain-soaked clothing.
The best vegetarian chicken Caesar wrap I’ve had to date
It was nothing that a little bit of cake couldn’t fix though. After dinner, we subway-ed back to Chelsea and popped into Empire Cake for dessert. With a display case full of enticing confections, selecting just one was no easy feat, but in the end, nostalgia prevailed. We settled on the bakery’s take on the 90s lunchbox classic: the Swiss roll. It was everything I had hoped it would be – a grown-up, tastier version of my favorite childhood treat. I only wish that I had grabbed one for myself instead of sharing one with my husband 😄
So many tantalizing goodies
At quarter past 7:00, we once again hopped on the subway; our destination was the Majestic Theatre, where we would be seeing Phantom of the Opera before it went off Broadway (its final show was in April of last year). We had seen the play several years earlier in Boston, but we had yet to experience the extravagance and splendor that was Phantom on Broadway. The production value was unreal: elaborate sets, ornate costumes, and special effects that had to be seen to be believed. Not to mention, all of the actors were incredibly talented, possessing beautiful voices and stage presence. Seeing Phantom of the Opera on Broadway had been a dream of mine for many years, and it was such a delight to be able to finally cross it off of my bucket list.
The stage before the start of the play
A little after 10:30pm, we left the Majestic and made our way back to the hotel. It had been a busy (but wonderful day), and we were more than ready for bed.
Day 3, Saturday: Bagels, High Line, Met, and Catching up with Friends
As had been the case the previous night, sleep eluded us, and we woke up feeling like a million bucks (just kidding, we felt like 💩). For the first time ever on a trip, I began to look forward to returning home just so I could get an uninterrupted, restful night’s sleep.
Exhausted or not, we had a full day ahead of us, so we got out of bed and set out to get something to eat from the nearby Murray’s Bagels. During a previous trip to the city, we had learned the cost of not ordering to-go orders ahead of time, so we placed our order online before walking over to the bagel shop. Unfortunately, everyone else had the same idea, and there was a huge line of people waiting to pick up their online orders. Wanting to maximize our time, we decided to split up. I would procure coffee from O Café, which was just around the corner, and my husband would remain in line. Once he had our breakfast sandwiches, he would meet me at the coffee shop, but as is often the case in life, things did not go according to plan.
A very busy Murray’s Bagels
After a few minutes’ wait, I had both of our coffees in hand, but my better half was nowhere to be seen. So, I backtracked to Murray’s, and sure enough, he was still inside waiting. The scene I was met with upon entering the bagel shop was complete pandemonium – a throng of people all clamoring for their order, with delivery app workers trying to make themselves heard above the din of the crowd. I quickly retreated to the relative tranquility of the sidewalk outside.
When 20 minutes had passed and we still didn’t have our food, we contemplated leaving and just eating the $20 that our two egg-wiches had cost, but call it optimism or masochism, we decided to stay put and continue waiting. Twenty minutes later (i.e., after a total wait time of 40 minutes), our name was called out, and we had our breakfast, which was arguably more of a brunch than breakfast at that point. Our egg sandwiches, while tasty, were not so earth-shatteringly good as to merit the extraordinary wait time.
Nonetheless, the egg-wiches had served their purpose, supplying us with the energy needed to begin tackling the day. Our first post-brekkie stop was the High Line, a former raised train line that has been converted into a public walkway and garden. This was our second visit to the High Line, and as with our previous visit, nothing was in bloom. Still, it was a pleasant walk, and the views from the High Line are always in season (even if its gardens aren’t).
Stopping for a quick photo on the High Line
At the end of the High Line, we stopped for a quick photo op at the Vessel before descending to the underground (a.k.a. subway) to make our way to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. If you’ve read my other New York posts, you’ll know that this was neither our first nor second visit to the Met. So, why were we keen to return to the museum? Three words: William the Hippo. Somehow, we had missed the famous miniature hippo on our previous visits to the Met, but we were determined to see him this time around. So, upon entering the museum, we made a beeline to the Egyptian wing to see him.
William the Hippo in all his glory
With that crucial task complete, we then walked through a temporary exhibition on the Tudors before ambling through several Impressionist galleries.
After a little over an hour in the museum, we left to grab a late lunch at a nearby Sweetgreen. I had my usual (Kale Caesar Salad with tofu), and as always, it hit the spot. We then headed back to our hotel, making a pit stop at a corner grocery store to buy some water and snacks for our train ride home the following day.
Once back at the hotel, we turned our attention to getting ready to head back out. My oldest friend lives in New York, and we had made plans to have dinner with her and her boyfriend at Sanfords in Queens. So, once we had cleaned ourselves up, we boarded the subway once more and rode the N train out to Astoria.
Sanfords had a cozy, inviting interior, and the food, while decent, was clearly geared toward meat eaters. There were not too many vegetarian entrees, but that did not put a damper on my evening. I came to see and catch up with my friend, and I did precisely that. After dinner, we all returned to my friend and her partner’s apartment and hung out for a few hours before calling it a night and returning to our hotel.
Day 4, Sunday: Return Home
Our alarm sounded off at 7:30am, and I awoke with dark circles under my dark circles after another sleepless night. Fortunately, it would be the last such night, as we were returning home to the relative quiet of our apartment.
Once dressed, we called an Uber to Penn Station and grabbed a couple of coffees and egg sandwiches from H & H Bagels before taking the escalators down to the train platform. We had to walk to one of the first cars to find seats (getting food had delayed us, causing us to be toward the end of the boarding queue), but we miraculously found two seats that were next to one another. I passed the next several hours on the train writing (for this blog), reading, and putting together our grocery list for the week (yay for productivity).
View from our train window
Hotel issues aside, I enjoyed my time in NYC and cannot wait to return to the Big Apple.
Summing it up: The 3 Wheres
Where We Went
Union Square Holiday Market
Grand Central Station
Rockefeller Center (to see the Christmas tree)
Giant red ornaments at 1251 6th Avenue
Majestic Theatre (to see Phantom of the Opera)
High Line
Vessel*
Metropolitan Museum of Art
*Saw from the outside; did not go inside
Where We Stayed
The Chelsea Pines Inn
Where We Ate
Breakfast
Jack’s Wife Freda
Murray’s Bagels
H & H Bagels
Lunch
Just Salad
Tea and Sympathy
Sweetgreen
Dinner
Chama Mama
P.S. Kitchen
Sanfords
Dessert/Coffee
787 Coffee
Empire Cake
O Café
Have you been to New York? If so, let me know in the comments section below, and as always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them!
