Hi friends, welcome back! Bryant Park is always one of my favorite spots to be around the holidays. This park has it all: a giant Christmas tree, great views of NYC, ice skating, holiday shops, Christmas music, people watching, and lots of delicious food! They also have events throughout the season such as a tree lighting ceremony, carolers, and visits from Santa. It’s a must-see spot around the holidays that should be on everyone’s NYC Holiday itinerary.
I used to love the tree, but for some reason they stopped putting ornaments on it and I personally think it looks a tad plain and needs some color.
This is how it used to be decorated back in 2019. This picture of us makes me laugh because it kinda looks like we’re sharing one giant coat.
My friend and I stopped by after the tree lighting ceremony and it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.
I enjoy watching people of all levels skating, it makes for great entertainment! The ice skating is free (skate rentals extra) and you can reserve a 55-minute slot to skate. At Rockefeller it can cost over $50 a ticket during peak times. I’m not a good skater so I never truly intend to cross that off my Christmas Bucket List 🙂
I’ve never bought anything from the shops, but they’re fun to walk through and window shop.
My favorite thing to do at Bryant Park is try out some food and enjoy the views. I love getting a chimney cake from Sweet Tooth Bakery. You’ll get tons of stares walking around with these.
If you’re craving Greek food, Koukli opened up this year and we tried their Bak-lava Hot Chocolate, Greek Fries, Chicken Pita, and Loukoumades (Greek donuts). This was very filling!
Casa Toscana has delicious bombolonis and sandwiches. I’ve been to their other locations, but not this one.
El Pambazo is also delicious, their nachos and Mexican hot chocolate are my fav! Last year we also got this tasty Braised Beef Sandwich.
The private igloos would be a great way to stay warm, or you can give your athletic skills a test with some miniature curling. There truly is something for everyone!
As you can see, Bryant Park is a great spot to hangout and enjoy the holidays in the heart of NYC! It’s also close to Fifth Avenue so you can grab a bite before seeing all the festive sights. Speaking of sights, Rockefeller and Saks are coming up next 🙂
Bryant Park looks like the real deal Lyssy. That is quite the chubby tree. I used to ice skate a lot when I was growing up (Canadian thing to do), but now it is the last thing I want to do. Love the combination of Christmas and good food. Thanks for sharing. Have a great Friday. Allan
The real deal indeed! It is a pretty chubby tree, hard to get a good selfie with, we had to be very far away! I ice skated a bit as a kid, my dad played hockey growing up so he liked skating, but we never figured out how to stop gracefully. Maybe one year we will ice skate in NYC. Christmas and food, my two favorite things 🙂 Happy Friday!
So much fun and beautiful Christmas decorations. You are making my bucket list even longer! I love Greek food…definitely stopping there! Merry Christmas to you and yours. 🎄
It was delicious! Merry Christmas to you and yours too!!
How fun! I agree that the tree is prettier with ornaments, but all of Bryant Park looks like a fun place at Christmas. Are the little shops pop ups or are they there all the time? I would want to sample every one of the amazing foods!
The shops are popups and opened right before Halloween this year. They usually stay up until January and the big food hall stays up longer.
I just went to NYC with my college girls last week and we skated at Bryant Park. It was definitely a favorite, next to seeing Hugh Jackman in The Music Man! None of us knew how to ice skate beforehand, so I’m sure we were quite the sight for spectators, but were able to make our way around the ice okay by the end of our hour. I love NYC and am loving your blog! I just posted about our NYC trip this week.
So glad you got to skate, what a fun memory and awesome trip!!
Bryant Park looks so beautiful decked out with its festive lights. I’m not very good at ice skating but may go one evening next week. My problem is stopping. It’s a bit embarrassing to run into the back of other people!
I am not good at stopping either! I think it’s also harder when the rink is pretty crowded, lots of people to maneuver around. I’ll safely watch from the sidelines 🙂
This looks like such a fun place to be at Christmas, and all that food looks delicious, especially those chimney cakes. 😋
It’s such a fun, festive, and delicious spot!
Lovely – and wow that chimney cake looks so tasttyyyy
It was delicious!!
The food looks glorious, reason enough to spend some time in Bryant Park. It all looks lovely: the decorations, little shops, and how nice that skating is offered for free. That’s a nice way to give back to the community and spread some Christmas spirit.
It’s got a great atmosphere and every Christmas thing you could ever want!
What a cute little area! I agree with you that the tree looks prettier with ornaments though (especially during the day!). What delicious foods and all those shops sound like a lot of fun.
Such a fun spot to be during the holidays! Maybe one year they’ll bring back the ornaments
Thanks for the tour of all of the very cool Christmas stuff at Bryant Park. I wonder why they stopped putting ornaments on the tree. It definitely looks better with them. You could enjoy a kind of mini winter Olympics with ice skating and curling. You’re having a great Christmas Season.
I’m hoping they’ll bring back the ornaments one year! Haha you’re right they really could have a little Olympics there! I am having a great Christmas season 🙂
Seems like such an amazing place! It’s true that the ”new” tree lacks a bitif colour though! The food, and especially the chimney cakes, looks soooo goood, it made me instantly hungry!!
Food and Christmas cheer what more can you ask for 🙂
That is one giant Christmas tree! It looks so pretty at night with all those twinkling lights. My mouth is watering from seeing all the delicious food that you sampled.
You’ll never go hungry at Bryant Park!
Once again you are making me hungry. Ha! Everything looks so tasty.
It was all very delicious!!
Bryant Park looks beautiful, and a fun place to check out during the holidays! Also, those nachos look amazing!!!
Such a fun spot during the holidays!
The Nutella bombolone reminded me of the piece of “Nutella pie” I had this past weekend. Sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. The pie was too dense and chewy while the bombolone looks just about perfect. Speaking of perfect, the Mexican hot chocolate looks amazing, no matter how it tasted! And glad you were critical of the Christmas tree, esp. compared to the version you showed from 2019. They could’ve done much better.