We will be staying for 2 nights in midtown Manhattan and will try to experience the Holiday Season Spirit by going to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, doing an exclusive Christmas Holiday Walking Tour of Park Avenue, 5th Avenue and Rockefeller Center - and a Christmas dinner at (apparently) world-famous Sardi's Restaurant!
24 Dec 10
Radio City Spectacular
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular is an annual show that is held at New York City's Radio City Music Hall. The show is held during the Christmas season. It is seen by more than a million visitors a year. The show uses over 140 performers, lavish costumes and an original musical score. It presents a combination of special effects, music and dance during various acts. Much of the dancing is done by the dance group known as the Rockettes. The show runs for six weeks from November 9 to December 30 and has, over the many years since it was first presented, become an annual tradition in New York at Christmas time.
The show is now presented throughout the United States in cities such as Chicago, IL, Des Moines, IA, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Tampa, FL, Phoenix, AZ and Costa Mesa, CA an New York. The Christmas Spectacular “Tour” started in Branson, Missouri. The Rockettes, originally named the Missouri Rockets literally returned home for the extravaganza.
25 Dec 10
Christmas Holiday Walking Tour
A Christmas Walking Tour of Rockefeller Center and 5th Avenue will light up our holiday season! On this 75-minute tour the noted Christmas Historian Sibyl McCormac Groff, who coined the word Gothamtide, will explain how Christmas became the most important holiday towards the end of the 19th century due to New Yorkers such as Washington Irving, John Pintard, Clement Clark Moore and Thomas Nast. Tour highlights will include:
- the development of the Christmas tree, lights, cards, gifts and entertainment
- holiday markets around the town
- the history of the lighted trees in the midst of Park Avenue and in front of the Seagrams building
- holiday displays in and on hotels, department stores and boutiques
- Christmas music written in New York
- strolling past Big Apple treasures like St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Saks Fifth Avenue and Cartier’s,
AND FINALLY: the most famous Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center
After this feast for the eyes, the stomach will be get its share at SARDI's !
In the heart of New York's Theater District, Sardi's has been the toast of Broadway for 82 years. It is known for the hundreds of caricatures of show-business celebrities that adorn its walls. Currently, there are more than 1,300 celebrity caricatures on display. Although the Sardi family is Italian the restaurant's menu is Continental.
26 Dec 10
If we still feel up to it, a Statue of Liberty Express Cruise is on the program....
Jingle Bells... here we come...