Start on 11th Avenue, Where the Lights Run for Blocks
You step off the D or N train in Dyker Heights and the first thing you notice is that the sidewalks are full. Cars crawl down 11th and 12th Avenues with their headlights dimmed, families walk in the middle of the street because the street is where everyone else is, and the houses between roughly 83rd and 86th Streets and 11th and 13th Avenues are lit end to end — arches, wire reindeer, whole façades outlined in bulbs, some of it synchronized, some of it cheerfully excessive. This is a residential neighbourhood, and the decorations are put up by the people who live there, which means the installations vary from year to year. Go after sunset. December is peak visitor season here, so if you want the lights without the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd, come on Christmas Day itself or on a weeknight earlier in the month.
If you want the same effect with fewer people, walk one neighbourhood over to Bay Ridge, where residents decorate too and the sidewalks are noticeably quieter.
Skate With the Skyline Behind You
Brooklyn's rinks are the reason to bring skates on a holiday trip. The borough's outdoor rinks give you a view back toward the skyline and the Brooklyn Bridge while you do laps, which is a different proposition from skating in Midtown. If you'd rather stay in Manhattan for the day, the options are well established: the Rockefeller Center rink at the base of the tree, where you should buy tickets in advance and aim for early morning or late evening to avoid the crush; Bryant Park, where entry is free and you pay only for skate rental, open October 28 through February 28; and Wollman Rink in Central Park, running October 24, 2026 through March 16, 2027. South Street Seaport and Pier 17 also have waterfront ice.
Markets, Trees and the Medieval Hall
Christmas Day itself is quiet in the markets — the big ones keep their own calendars — but the days around it are when the city's holiday infrastructure is at full stretch, and several of these are worth building a day around.
- Bryant Park Winter Village and Holiday Shops open from October 28 for the 2026/27 season, with the rink staying open through February 28, 2027. The tree sits at the centre of it.
- Union Square Holiday Market is the one to visit for artisan goods and work by local designers.
- Grand Central Holiday Fair is indoors at Grand Central Terminal and runs November 9 through December 24, 2026 — so it closes before Christmas Day.
- Columbus Circle Holiday Market sets up at the southwest entrance to Central Park.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art installs a decorated tree and a Baroque Neapolitan crèche in the Medieval Sculpture Hall, refreshed each season — a calm, warm counterpoint to the street crowds.
- Other trees worth the walk: the Wall Street tree in the Financial District; the tree and illuminated arch at Washington Square Park, best in the evening; the tree at Tavern on the Green; and the Rockefeller Center tree, which traditionally lights on the first Wednesday of December — December 2 for 2026 — with the tree itself arriving Saturday, November 7.
For window displays, head to Fifth Avenue, where Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman are the ones people line up for. Go after sunset, and avoid the post-office rush and December weekends.
What's On Stage and in the Churches
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular has put the Rockettes on the Radio City Music Hall stage since 1933, and the 2026 run is the longest in the show's history: November 4, 2026 through January 4, 2027, across 230 performances, with a new Rockettes number and immersive staging. New York City Ballet performs The Nutcracker at Lincoln Center. Beyond the big rooms, churches and choirs across the city hold concerts and choral performances through the season — check what's local to wherever you're staying, because the parish-and-choir circuit is where Christmas Day music actually happens.
Plan It Around the Dark Hours
The single most useful thing to know about Christmas in Brooklyn is that the best of it happens after sunset. The Dyker Heights lights, the Washington Square arch, the Fifth Avenue windows — all of them are evening propositions, and all of them are better on a weeknight than a weekend. Build your days around indoor anchors: a market in the afternoon, a museum tree, a concert, then out into the cold for the lights. Buy skating and show tickets in advance, take the subway rather than driving into Dyker Heights, and leave one evening free for Bay Ridge, where you can walk the same kind of decorated blocks at your own pace. Start with the calendar — the tree lighting on December 2, the Grand Central fair closing December 24, the Spectacular running into the new year — and work backwards from there.