Christmas in NYC 🎄

In between battling anxiety and hatred for everything and everyone, I left my house to get into the holiday spirit, even though my attitude was more Krampus than jolly. 

I took my usual holiday photo stroll through midtown to capture Christmas photos. This time, I had the pleasure of shooting with Shawn, which always adds to the experience. It's always lovely to catch up with him while shooting. We started our outing on 2nd Avenue to catch the Holiday Nostalgia train. Honestly, I'm still on the fence about whether I truly enjoy taking photos with the train. At this point, the experience is more of a mixed bag for me. I am still hoping to see a classic red train one year. We decided to hop on the regular F train to 47th Street since the holiday train gets pretty crowded.

Once we arrived, we went to the Lotte New York Palace. It was bustling with visitors, but we managed to capture some great shots amid the crowd. Following that, we headed to the Cartier store, which was beautifully adorned with festive decorations featuring a stunning new design on the building. During our stroll, I was surprised to learn that the city was celebrating the 200th birthday of 5th Avenue that Sunday. The street was closed to car traffic from 48th Street to 57th Street, complicating our usual photographic spots for the Cartier store. The celebration not only included car-free streets but also live performances, food trucks, and even a six-foot birthday cake that we happened to pass by.

Next, we headed to The Peninsula Hotel. Unfortunately, we couldn't enter as the lobby was swarming with people. It was disappointing but typical of this time of year, especially with influencers leaking our cherished photo spots in the city to outsiders. We then tried to visit the Swarovski store because I had seen on social media that they featured a stunning rainbow tree inside, but the line to enter was far too long for our liking. Instead, we stumbled across a beautifully decorated Christmas tree that was surprisingly devoid of crowds, making it the perfect backdrop for a few photos.

To wrap up our day, we made our last stop at the displays of giant candy canes and oversized Christmas ornaments. It was a fitting end to our festive tour, and we lucked out with clear, warmer weather, as December has been particularly cold this year. Like, omg winter, why are you wintering? LOL.