Bright Lights, Big City: Christmas in NYC

This is what the weekend before Christmas looks like in the suburbs:

Mass chaos in the streets outside the Target/Old Navy/TJ Maxx/Toys R Us strip mall. Not that that kind of hustle and bustle isn't an amusing part of the Season - even holiday traffic is fun to me (for like 5 minutes), but....to embrace a little more holly jolly, Dan + I escaped for a day this weekend to New York City.

I'd never been to New York at Christmas-time....

so in the day that we spent there, we hit all the highpoints and did everything a tourist should do in December.

Macy's at Herald Square, {window} shopping on and around 5th Avenue. Look at this wreath made entirely of gold heels...

...and a break for cupcakes.

I hope I don't frost anyone the wrong way when I say this about the famed Magnolia Bakery, but: OVER-RATED.  I much prefer D.C.'s Hello Cupcakes to this Carrie Bradshaw favorite.  

After the Rockettes Red Velvet indulgence we ventured into St. Patrick's Cathedral, where I lit a candle and offered a special prayer for the new year. My photos don't do the inside justice, but here's a peak from the outside in the courtyard of The Palace Hotel......

The decor inside The Palace was some of the most beautiful in the entire city (there were also characters dressed as Nutcrackers and Sugar Plum Fairies handing out cookies). I loved the chandeliers flanked with "sticks", as described by Dan....

(Some really clever Pinterst-type needs to figure out how to recreate this!)

From Midtown, we chugged it down to Central Park for a carriage ride, and because we're not afraid of being cheesey tourists, we also grabbed hot chocolate and roasted nuts from the street vendors.

After, we quickly dropped the cheese and went all too-cool with a late brunch in SoHo at Balthazar, where I'd make a reservation weeks ago, because the last time I was in New York I waited too long to call and couldn't get in the door. Dan declared the sour cream hazelnut waffles he ate the best of his life, and since that man does not waffle when it comes to any kind of dough-based entree, I believed him...especially after stealing about five bites!

Since it was right next door, I popped into C. Wonder, the new store owned by Tory Burch's ex-husband Chris. The store has been getting tons of hype.

It's whimsical inside, very preppy and hip, and indeed more affordable than his first wife's line, but as another shopper (think Anthony from SATC) suggested aloud to everyone while we all rummaged through expensive (but bright and colorful) plastic bangles - $60 for Made in China - The world is coming to an end.  I didn't buy anything at C. Wonder, but I get some gifts in other cute SoHo shops, and then we wondered in and out of art galleries (where we didn't buy the sweetest basset hound painting but really wanted it) and around the neighborhoods, peaking into everyone's windows and pretending we were locals.  That was actually my favorite part of our day.

Because he'd been such a trooper playing Big to my Carrie, Dan earned a time out in an Irish pub to watch some football. There, we warmed up from a perfectly festive but still very chilly day....

...and then caught ourselves living out our Christmas card.

When we left out on the train, I asked Dan....Do you have the Sex and the City theme song in you head?  No, he assured me, but maybe The Sopranos. Amtracking back to the 'burbs, I cound't help but wonder (hee!), will there ever be a time when I visit New York and don't think in SATC references?