With the holidays approaching, I wanted to share some of my family’s favorite winter activities in NYC that I hope you can enjoy this holiday season! 

Visit Levain Bakery

Levain Bakery has two locations on the Upper West Side, one on 74th Street and another on Amsterdam Avenue, where they serve fresh breads, warm cookies, and other baked goods. Their warm, gooey oatmeal raisin cookies are the best I’ve ever tasted.

Walk in Central Park

With a Levain cookie in hand, walk 2 blocks east and enter the serenity of Central Park. The Mall – Literary Walk is beautiful at this time of year, and you can pay tribute to the new statue of Women’s Rights Pioneers (Sojourner Truth, Susan B Anthony, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton). Enjoy vendors, musicians and a guitar-playing Santa Claus as you make your way to Bethesda Fountain.  

Visit Rockefeller Center

This year’s Christmas tree is a 79ft tall Norway Spruce with over 50,000 multi-colored LED lights on about 5 miles of wire, and it hails from Elkton, MD. If you’re at Rockefeller Center past 5PM, be sure to watch the Saks Fifth Avenue Holiday Light Show, which runs every 15 minutes. 

Shop the Christmas Markets 

This year, NYC has four major Christmas markets: the Holiday Shops at Bryant Park, the Grand Central Holiday Fair, the Union Square Holiday Market, and the Columbus Circle Holiday Market. So far this holiday season, I’ve visited the Bryant Park and Union Square Christmas markets and have enjoyed walking through the rows of food, jewelry, clothing, and novelty shops to find gifts for family and friends.