When we found out we were moving to New Jersey in December, one of the first things we did was to book a hotel in New York for a Saturday night so we could take Tom and Izzy to see the Rockefeller Tree and the lights.

We caught the 11.06am train from Metropark and arrived at New York Penn Station before 12 noon. The train was manic and there was standing room only but it was a short journey so we didn’t mind.

Arriving at Penn we came off the platform and saw our first New York decorations.

We had booked to stay at The Gregory purely because it was within easy walking distance of Penn Station which meant we would be able to drop our bags off and spend the afternoon exploring. Despite being too early to check in, our room was ready and they kindly let us in.

After a 10 minute rest we headed out to our first destination – Bryant Park. A friend had recommended we visit their Winter Village. It was just over 5 minutes from the hotel and it was full of stores selling Christmas gifts and food stands.

We hadn’t eaten so bought some empanadas from one of the vendors. We had no idea what to expect but they were lovely. The kids and I had chicken ones whilst Stu had beef. Tom had spotted a churros shop so we went there for pudding and had churros with nutella. Tom hates nutella so lucky Izzy got to have his too!

Although the park was worth visiting we did feel it lacked a bit of christmas music to make it feel extra festive. Anyway, next stop was the Public Library which is next to Bryant Park.

We were greeted by the Lions which were looking festive – when we visited in October the lions were being restored and were covered up so I was quite excited they were out on show!

The library looked beautiful inside with its Christmas trees and decorations. We had taken the kids 4 years ago but unfortunately the Rose Reading Room was closed so it was great to be able to go back and see the room.

Our next Port of Call was Saint Patrick’s Cathedral. On my previous 2 visits to NY I had missed the cathedral so was determined to visit this time. There was quite a large queue to get in but we waited and entered. Tom and Izzy don’t share my fascination of churches and cathedrals so they sat on a pugh bench whilst Stu and I explored. The front was decorated with red and white poinsettias and looked beautiful.

By this time it was about 3pm and we really wanted to stay out until dark to see the Christmas lights, so we needed something to do for a couple of hours before tea. We decided to wander down to Central Park for a walk. We climbed on one of the rocks which gave a great view of the Manhattan Skyline.

Izzy had been doing a Christmas Tik Tok challenge where each day she was doing a festive dance counting down to Christmas, so she spent a few minutes filming herself doing her dance. She was worried people would stare at her but no-one even noticed!

We decided to treat the kids and go to Ellen’s Stardust Diner for tea. We knew there would probably be a huge queue so headed up early (4.15pm) The queue stretched down the whole block. We found ourselves behind another English family so spent the next hour talking to them about things to do in NY whilst we waited to get in.

We eventually got a table downstairs in the diner. Slightly shocked when we saw the prices on the menu but it was a treat for the kids. Stu and I both had burgers (I had my first ever Mac and cheese burger) whilst Tom and Izzy both had chicken strips. For the price (about $130) we didn’t think the food was good but the entertainment was fantastic. As we left Izzy even commented that it was definitely worth the wait to get in.

By this stage it was dark so we headed to the Rockefeller Tree. It was manic. The tree and the lights looked lovely. We then headed to Saks to watch the window display. This was amazing and we stayed to watch it a second time!

Although leaving the front of Saks and walking up 5th Avenue we have never seen so many people! It got to the point where it was so crowded and more people were trying to get into the area you actually couldn’t move through the crowd – it took about 15 minutes to walk 50 metres which was not fun at all! We headed back to our hotel for the night.

Sunday morning we got up really early and walked to Starbucks for brekkie. The streets were so quiet and peaceful.

We wanted to have a relatively chilled day so headed down to Central Park on the metro to go for a wander. It was a beautiful morning and the Park was lovely. Full of people jogging and walking their dogs – we noticed lots of dogs were wearing ‘shoes’ on their feet which we’d never seen before but assumed it was maybe due to the cold!

We walked from the reservoir to the 59th Street exit. We decided to go to Bubba Gumps for lunch at Times Square but on leaving the park had to take a diversion as the police had closed the roads. Ice had formed at the top of some of the tall buildings overnight and it was falling off onto the paths below. You could actually see the huge chunks of ice falling down.

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags and then to the train station to go home.