Ah, the lovely holiday season in New York City is upon us. It means bright, colorful lights, enchanting holiday windows, the Rockefeller Center tree, the smell of pine in front of your corner deli\u2026and gridlock. We\u2019re talking vehicle gridlock and people gridlock.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly what happens in New York as Thanksgiving rounds into the crazed, shopper-stomping weeks of December. One can love the holiday season and winter, as I do, but deplore the crowded, over-the-top feel of New York at this time, especially Midtown Manhattan. Picture 30 people carrying massive shopping bags and jostling to move through the same 12 square feet on the corner of West 46th<\/sup> Street and Seventh Avenue, or Fifth Avenue and 49th<\/sup> Street, on a dark, cold, rainy evening. Just a few are cranky.<\/p>\n This New Yorker always greets the time between Thanksgiving and December 24, consumerism\u2019s high holidays of shopping, with a mixture of excitement \u2013<\/span> I love winter, snow, Macy\u2019s and Lord & Taylor\u2019s windows, Greenwich Village streets with white twinkle lights, etc. \u2013<\/span> and loathing. So, how does one not only stay sane but enjoy New York in these weeks?<\/p>\n For those of like mind, here are seven things to do to get peaceful and keep merry during the pre-holiday rush in New York. These are places of tranquility and fresh air, activities, and small tricks when the crowdedness and mania feel like too much. In a year of economic turmoil and no matter which holiday you mark \u2013 Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanzaa <\/span>\u2013 it’s good to remind ourselves about what is free or at least nearly free.<\/span><\/p>\n Walk downtown.<\/strong> While Midtown, the Upper East Side, the West Village, and SoHo are often crowded, take a break and walk many of those crooked, angular 17th<\/sup>– and 18th<\/sup>– century-feeling streets in the Financial District. This far downtown can feel very open, and it\u2019s made more so by winter\u2019s brisk wind blowing across the slender part of Manhattan. (At times it feels like being in the middle of Mark Helprin\u2019s novel Winter\u2019s Tale<\/a>.)<\/em> Especially walk along Stone Street<\/a>, Bridge Street, and South William Street in that area, but many places will do.<\/p>\n Go to the Hudson River and see the sunset.<\/strong> Sure, New York is crowded, but its rivers, harbor, and oceanfront literally give the compact, congested physical space breathing room. These are the times of shortest daylight of the year, but the sunsets are a treat of light. As a West Sider, I love watching the sunsets over the Hudson River. <\/span>Try a walk or park bench seat on the Battery Park City Esplanade<\/a>, the piers and esplanade of the Hudson River Park<\/a>, or Riverside Park<\/a>. It\u2019s good to bundle up, feel the wind off the river, and watch the sun slip behind the New Jersey hillsides. The sky goes from azure to midnight blue, with mixed-in pinkish, violet, and golden clouds, as the first stars twinkle and the silhouettes deepen.<\/p>\n Head to the boardwalk or beach of the Brighton Beach<\/a> neighborhood and look at the ocean.<\/strong> Or, take the LIRR<\/a> train to Long Beach<\/a> and walk its boardwalk and beach, one of my favorites. What could be better to ease the holiday mania in the city than hearing very little but the waves, watching them break over the sand, and gazing at the horizon?<\/p>\n Look up above the crowds at the clouds and sky.<\/strong> When pressed in by a horde of shoppers or holiday enthusiasts (and I may be among them), just lift up your eyes, take a deep breath, and notice how what you see can bring you back to yourself. (I also spend lots of my life looking at buildings and their details, but that\u2019s another story.) Seeing billowy clouds above and behind the building tops is exhilarating. In fact, some people spend their lives enjoying and appreciating clouds, an activity known as cloudspotting<\/a>. Check out Gavin Pretor-Pinney\u2019s fine book, The Cloudspotter\u2019s Guide<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n Do a museum trip off the Fifth Avenue track by exploring the Panorama of the City of New York at the Queens Museum of Art.<\/strong> This experience may either make you feel bigger than New York City or tiny within its massiveness as you see a scale model of the entire city. It’s sure to leave you in wonder. <\/span>The Panorama<\/a> is an amazing, masterful scale model of New York, of 9,335 square feet, that shows every building constructed before 1992 in the city\u2019s five boroughs (a total of 895,000 miniscule structures), plus New York\u2019s streets, bridges, and parks.<\/p>\n Robert Moses conceived the panorama, and a team of people working for Raymond Lester Associates built it for the opening of the 1964 World\u2019s Fair in Flushing Meadows Corona Park. I\u2019ve been mesmerized for hours here by standing on the walkway around the panorama and discovering the delight of tiny models, knowing that my discoveries simply led to more questions \u2013<\/span> and more love for the city.<\/p>\n Smell the pines and restore yourself at the Pinetum in Central Park.<\/strong> This is nature\u2019s continuing show for the holidays. Walk slowly around the circular paths of the Arthur Ross Pinetum<\/a>, an experience like having your own private garden in New York. (Then again, we do have to share it!) The Pinetum has more than 400 trees and 15 different species of pines, including Swiss Mountain, white, and Himalayan, as well as winter jasmine and coralberry, according to the Central Park Conservancy. It\u2019s a place of contemplation, color, and peace.<\/p>\n