One of the reasons New York City does Christmas so well is because it is unoriginal. That sounds like an attack, or something unpleasant, but what I mean to say is - New York takes all the best traditions of Christmas from all around the world - then does them as only New York can do. Bigger, grander and with a wonderful intensity.
I was very eager to see the Rockefeller Christmas tree. There is a Christmas movie, "The Christmas Tree" in which a nun learns how much the Rockefeller tree brings to people, and the joy it imparts on the city. I was actually disappointed the first time I saw the tree.
Sure, it's big. It's really big. But Manhattan is kind of a large city. The tree seemed swallowed by the grandness of her surroundings. It wasn't a complete let down. The tree was nice enough and Rockefella was a great place to be. There were loads of decorations, silver bells ringing and long lines of people waiting to ice skate.
Of course, the obvious problem was that I was visiting the tree during the day. It should have been clear to me that the tree was in her full glory after dark. I went back the weekend before Christmas at around 8pm. I have never been anywhere that crowded! It was insane.
The tree looked magnificent. The most beautiful Christmas tree I have ever seen. She was so bright and beautiful. Breathtaking.
It was amusing to watch the crowd take pictures. Because it was so busy, the people were kept moving by crowd control. The effect was a huge moving crowd, taking pictures as the slowly past the tree.
There were cartoon characters out taking pictures with kids. Sponge Bob, Mickey, Minnie and the rest. Stalls were set up in the less crowded corners selling people pictures of themselves with the tree.
It was great! But far too crowded to stay long. I did have to venture back to Rockefella one more time before Christmas was over. I could not spend a Christmas in New York City and not see the famously fabulous Rockefella Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.
The Rockettes are a precision dance company performing out of the Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan, New York City. During the Christmas season, the Rockettes have performed five shows a day, seven days a week, for 77 years. Perhaps their best-known routine is an eye-high leg kick in perfect unison in a chorus line, which they include at the end of every performance. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rockettes
The show was great! Extremley tacky and very much aimed at children under the age of twelve. But nevertheless a lot of fun and very amusing. I thought it was strange, but fantastic, that the let us take pictures inside during the show.
It is a short show with no intermission. However the tickets are reasonably priced. We had particularly good seats in the second row, however the angle we were at made it a bit hard to fully enjoy the 3D segments... But that was OK, I was blown away enough by the fact that they stopped the show for 3D adventures. I think they must have developed the script over the past fifty years.
So that was the end of my Rockefella Christmas. Wonderful really!
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