Walk This Way: Five Fab Holiday Tours Around NYC

By Troy Segal

Twinkle, twinkle, little city: This is the time of year when New York sparkles and shines, all dressed up in holiday lights, windows and displays. Even if you’re a native, don’t miss out on seeing the sights—some smack in the midst of Midtown, others farther afield—on a guided tour.

Image: John Morton — Flickr

WindowsWear offers a Fashion Window Walking Tour all year ’round—but naturally, the retail-themed trip is especially rich this time o’ the year, given the legendary nature of our department store holiday displays. From sentimental Lord & Taylor to always-edgy Barneys, from pull-out-the-stops Macy’s to intimate Tiffany & Co., the vitrines create a colorful crossroads, where commerce meets celebration.

Image: Anthony Quintano — Flickr

Hit the street with Free Tours by Foot’s New York Holiday Lights Tour, which takes in the marvels of Midtown (the Rockefeller Center tree, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the department store windows), using the subway to zip farther distances, like up to Lincoln Center, and beat the traffic. Through Jan. 5.

Image: karendotcom127 — Flickr

If you’d rather ride, the NYC Holiday Lights Motorcoach Sightseeing Tour offered by NYCVP covers much the same ground, and parts of Central Park and upper Madison Avenue, too; the bus and its narrated stories stop periodically, letting travelers get up close and personal with the displays. Through Dec. 27.

With Holiday Lights & Movie Sites, On Location Tours adds a touch of cinematic magic to the rounds. The bus tour hits the store windows (noting any film tie-ins) and also visits spots on the Upper East and West and Central Park that figure prominently in holiday movies like Elf, Serendipity and Scrooged. There’s also time for some browsing at The Shops at Columbus Circle. Through Jan. 1.

Image: Howard Brier — Flickr

Prefer something a little more homey? A Slice of Brooklyn’s Christmas Lights & Cannoli Tour drives around Dyker Heights, a residential nabe famed for its house and lawn decorating mania: animatronic nativity scenes, neon flying reindeer, 30-foot tall nutcrackers—often, all on one lawn. The tour also takes in Bay Ridge and a snack (the tour’s namesake cannoli) at an Italian pastry shop. Through Dec. 31.