New York, New York and It's Wondrous Christmas Trees and Windows

Now that the strike has ended I invite you all to visit New York where your dollar goes far. There are so many great ticket deals and restaurant discounts in place to help put New York City back in everyone's graces. Here are some special offers for the holiday season: Hairspray $65 weekdays, $70 weekends through January 31, 2008; Rent $40 rear mezzanine, $55 front mezzanine, $65 orchestra through December 23, 2007; Spamalot Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday at 8pm, Sunday at 2pm & 7pm $60 mezzanine, $75 orchestra through January 17, 2008 excluding performances from 12/26 through 12/31; Xanadu $59 all performances through 12/23; Curtains $59.50 front mezzanine, $78.50 orchestra. Offer valid Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings and Sunday matinees through 12/16 and all performances 12/18-12/23; The Drowsy Chaperone $52.25 mid-mezzanine, $76.25 orchestra and front mezzanine, Tuesday, Thursday through Saturday at 8, Wednesday at 2 and Sunday at 3 and 7. Also available are bargains for Tom Stoppard's Rock 'n Roll and The Seafarer.

While in New York be sure to visit the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree on 5th Avenue and 49th Street on display until January 6, 2008. This year the tree is an 84 feet tall, Norwegian spruce planted in 1947 in Connecticut. Chris Reardon and all eco-conscious folks will be happy to know that the Christmas landmark has gone green for the first time. It was lit with a new set of energy efficient LED lights fully powered by solar panels. You can also watch the ice skaters below or go for a skate yourself.

There are other trees of interest around the city including the Origami Christmas Tree at the American Museum of Natural History, a wonderful place to spend the day. This year the theme of the tree is Fantastic Creatures, mythical and real, from dragons and mermaids to narwhals and peacocks. They also have two 19 foot Holiday Barosaurs lit up for the holiday season. The Chorus Tree at South Street Seaport is a tree made up of carolers performing Fridays at 6 & 7 pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 3 & 4 through Christmas. There's great shopping and restaurants down there as well. The Peace Tree in the Cathedral of St. John the Divine at 110th St. and Amsterdam Ave. is decorated with 1,000 paper cranes and other peace symbols. Children can participate in a workshop to learn how to make the cranes and there is also a walking tour of the Cathedral that highlights the pre-Christian origins of Christmas. And don't miss a day at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and it's breathtaking 20 foot blue spruce featuring 18th century Neapolitan angels and cherubs planking a Neopolitan Baroque creche. The museum is located at 1000 5th Avenue and 82nd Street.

And not to be missed is Holiday Window Gazing at some of midtown New York's biggest department stores. Macy's Herald Square's theme, West 34th and Broadway, is Santa's Great Adventure that takes him into space. This year window gazers can see their own images captured and beamed to Santa's naughty and nice television monitors. There are regular updates on the percentages of naughty versus nice. In addition, one window is actually a two-in-one that flips upside down to represent the northern and southern hemispheres as Santa barrels through the night bearing gifts. Lord & Taylor’s theme, 5th Ave. and East 38th St., this year is the five senses of Christmas portrayed through a series of miniature holiday scenes with a largely European flavor. Taste is portrayed as a Christmas dinner in an upper class New York city home. Feel is a wintry Copenhagen scene where a child prepares to throw a snowball and others are building a snowman. Smell is captured by the fragrant pastries and breads of a Paris bakery making holiday treats. Sight is Santa Claus arriving in Venice’s exquisite facades. Sound portrays a group of musicians playing in a Vienna mansion. A final window shows children from all over the world, dressed in their native costumes, celebrating the holiday. This year Saks Fifth Avenue windows, 5th Ave. & East 49th St., are scenes full of quirky, spinning snowmen who are off on an adventure to discover their own identities. The Saks windows are a constant swirl of whirling, twirling, spinning and swooping with spunky snowmen characters. One snow-woman even gives off the aura of a shimmying Carmen Miranda. Bloomingdale’s windows, 3rd Ave. & East 59th St., are the creations of children's imagination. In collaboration with the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and the Children’s Museum of the Arts this summer, Bloomingdale’s invited children to create collages, paintings and sculptures which were then converted into life-size scenes. The plots may not make so much sense, but the visual impact of the scenes are intense, featuring characters like an alien queen with five eyes and two mouths, a robot with a candy heart and a glowing purple snowflake with oracle-like qualities.

These are requisite traditional activities my family enjoys during this holiday time. Hopefully, these will leave my daughter with fond memories of her childhood Christmases. I can guarantee you will love doing any and/or all of them. The nice thing is that most of the tree viewing and window gazing is free. And remember that the pound is worth 2 to 1, in your favor. You lucky son of a Brits.