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| Your Ultimate Guide to Christmas in New York |
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Best 'I'm in the Big Apple!' moment
There are loads of only-in-New-York moments -- the Empire State Building, Yankee games, Woody Allen's jazz gigs at the Carlyle -- but Times Square (timessquarenyc.org) trumps them all. New Yorkers hotly
debate the newly revamped crossroads (some say it is too sanitised; others that you can now enjoy yourself without getting shot), but the "people's piazza" (above) is nothing if not fun. Surrounded by honking horns, flashing cameras and enough advertising to make your head explode -- there's nowhere like it on Earth. A free tour departs the Times Square Visitors Center every Friday at noon and, if you're in New York on New Year's Eve, this is the place to be at 11.59pm.
Find it: Broadway, between 42nd and 47th streets.
Hours: 24/7.
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Best breath of fresh air
The High Line (001 212 500 6035; www.thehighline.org) will see your Central Park and raise you one disused railway track and a 25-foot elevation.
Open to the public since June, this brilliant little artery snakes from Gansevoort to 20th Street and offers a bird's-eye view on the Meatpacking District and unsuspecting (or naughty) guests of the Standard Hotel, which straddles the track.
A hot chocolate stall will warm the cockles, and you can decide for yourself whether the sleek glass and undulating concrete strips have embellished or destroyed the 'found' aspect of the original. More line will open next year.
Find it: Take the stairway up at W14th Street, between 9th and 10th Avenues.
Hours: 7am to 10pm daily.
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Best new opening
Apple has just opened its fourth (and biggest) store in New York, beneath a Louvre-like glass portal on the Upper West Side (001 212 209 3400; apple.com/retail).
Even if you don't buy anything, it's worth descending through the spiral staircase here -- or at the flagship store on Fifth Avenue -- for the sheer hell of it. Genius bars, iconic products and hip staff in red T-shirts complete the sleek, almost cultish feel of Steve Jobs & Co's 14,000 sq ft cathedral.
"This is bonkers," says one woman, who promptly leaves. She's right, of course. It's also set to become one of the best-performing retail stores on Earth.
Find it: 1981 Broadway, one block north of Lincoln Centre.
Hours: 24/7.
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Best toy store
If Santa's sack needs filling, FAO Schwarz (001 212 644 9400; fao.com) is the place to do it.
Yes, it's hideously corporate ("Awww," says a sales assistant when I tell her I have a three-year-old girl, with a glazed look of complete boredom), but who cares?
Step past the doorman/toy soldier and join the other out-of-towners wandering around in sheer, unfettered wonder.
From Disney princesses to the famous dance-on piano, it will haul the inner-child out of even the most cynical of grown-ups.
There's an evil candy section too, full of jawbreakers, Wonka bars, sugar babies and Charleston chews.
Hours: 10am-7pm (Monday-Saturday); 11am-6pm (Sunday).
Find it: Fifth Avenue at E58th.
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Best hotel
Manhattan opens a new hotel as often as the rest of us open a dishwasher -- adding 4,500 rooms this year alone. The Pierre Hotel (001 212 838 8000; tajhotels.com), where Al Pacino danced the tango in Scent of a Woman, is back after a $100m (Euro 67m) makeover. In the Meatpacking District, the Standard (001 212 645 4646; standardhotels.com) is an Andr¨¦ Balaz hotel with a 70s-styled cocktail lounge on the 18th floor -- glass-floored balconies make for top views.
The Ace Hotel (001 212 679 2222; acehotel.com) on 29th Street is all boho swagger -- cramming a high-ceilinged lobby with vintage sofas, a tiny bar and even a photo booth. For a touch of Miami in Midtown, hit the President Hotel (001 212 246 8800; president-hotel-new-york.com) -- the lobby, with its aquarium and white leather furniture, is worth a nose.
Find them: The Pierre (2 E61st, at 5th Ave/Central Park); The Standard (848 Washington at W13th); Ace Hotel (20 W29th at 6th Ave); The President Hotel (Times Square, at Broadway and 48th).
Hours: Hotel-hopping hits its peak between 11pm and 1am.
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Best street food
Every year, streetvendor.org announces its Vendys -- the annual awards for extra-scrumptious achievements in the art of street food. This year's winners were Fernando and Yolanda Martinez of the Country Boys Taco Truck. "You watch the huaraches get made -- pressing and cooking the tortillas, layering meat and cheese and all the other fillings and sauces -- and when you are handed this unbelievable huge plate of deliciousness, you wonder how you are ever going to finish it," the website drools. "Next thing you know, it's gone and you are already planning your next trip to Red Hook for another one." As reasons to visit the Brooklyn ward go, it sure beats Ikea.
Find it: Red Hook ballfields at Clinton and Bay, Brooklyn.
Hours: Weekends, from 11am-5pm approximately.
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Best holiday market
Union Square (unionsquarenyc. org), with its gigantic Filene's Basement, Whole Foods Market and Barnes & Noble outlets, hardly seems the place for a farmers' market. Turns out the square itself -- a large island in the middle of the mayhem -- is a perfect fit. Featuring 100 boutiques from New York City and beyond, the 'European-style' holiday market shops itself as a source of unusual gifts that won't break the bank. It's a unique vibe -- I even spotted a couple of Manhattanites in wellies.
Find it: Broadway at 14th Street.
Hours: 11am-8pm (Sunday-Thursday), 11am-9pm (Friday); 10am-9pm (Saturday).
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Best Christmas show
Catherine Zeta Jones, Sienna Miller and Hugh Jackman have all graced Broadway this winter, but nothing says Christmas like the New York City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker (001 212 870 5570; nycballet.com).
Running until January 3 at the Lincoln Center, George Balanchine's classic is a family tradition in Manhattan, and two hours in the company of its floating ballerinas, magical lights, one-tonne Christmas tree and ridiculously cute kids will show you why. Tickets range from $20 (Euro 13.50) to $215 (Euro 144.50) in the 'sweet seats', and the orchestra seating is best for kids. If ballet ain't your thing, check out the Radio City Christmas Spectacular (radiocity.com), or White Christmas on Broadway (broadway.com).
Find it: Lincoln Center, Columbus Ave. between W62nd and W65th Streets.
Hours: Various performances from 1pm to 8pm.
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Best borough-on-the-up
Embrace the hype, people. Brooklyn (visitbrooklyn.org), once the commuter-crammed butt of Manhattan's jokes, is on the up. Start with a stroll over the Brooklyn Bridge, pause for a view of Manhattan from the new Brooklyn Bridge Park and grab a pizza at Grimaldi's (001 718 858 4300; grimaldis.com). From there, take the subway to Park Slope and New York's alternative Fifth Avenue -- a strip of boutiques and brownstones long since fallen to the armies of gentrification.
Afterwards, hit Smith Street for grits at Char No.4 (001 718 643 2106; charno4.com) and make your way back towards Manhattan via Williamsburg (Peter Luger's steakhouse is voted the best in the city) or rough 'n' ready Red Hook (the galleries are colonising as you read). At times it can feel like a big, middle-class affectation, but there's no doubt about it -- Brooklyn's time is now.
Find it: South-east of Manhattan, via Brooklyn Bridge or the subway.
Hours: 24/7.
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