NYC Highlights, Post 4: Shopping!

Quite a bit of our week in New York was spent shopping - particularly after Christmas when the Boxing Day and post-Christmas clearance sales were on! Our baggage and budget limits meant we didn't buy too much though. :) We went to both Macy's and Bloomingdale's - enormous multi-storey department stores each covering a whole city block - but only saw the tiniest fraction of of them even after two or three visits! And of course, the crowds of shoppers inside were quite considerable!!




Another sight worth seeing in New York at Christmas time is the department stores' window displays. They are INCREDIBLE! Each window has a different scene set up, with miniature houses, furnishings, people, or whatever else is relevant. The scenes also have lots of moving parts! The first store window Christmas displays we saw were Lord & Taylor's, which had a "my favourite Christmas traditions" theme...





Macy's had a big Christmas tree on the side of the building, made with strands of golden lights. Its window display theme was scenes from "Miracle on 34th Street" - a Christmas movie (first made in 1947) that is set largely at Macy's in New York (which is on 34th Street)...





We also found some cute Christmas markets next to the Public Library. They sold everything from hats and scarves to soaps, Thai lanterns, Christmas ornaments, and chocolate-coated fruit skewers. The shops were in little huts, and there was a big golden Christmas tree beside an ice skating rink. I got my new black/white/grey cap at these markets. :) The last photo below shows the view of the Empire State Building across the ice rink, the top of it lit up in Christmas colours (and Hanukkah colours around the side, apparently!)...





One more shopping experience that is definitely worth mentioning is when we stumbled across FAO Schwarz two days after Christmas. This is an absolutely enormous toy store with room after room of different toy themes, and mountains of stuffed animals (one of which we adopted, and will at some future stage make an appearance on this blog). Here are a few pics...





And finally, as seen at FAO Schwarz, check out this absolutely awesome Big Piano (click here to see Jingle Bells)!!!