Things to do in NYC in December 2024

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree (NYC’s pride and joy) is a beaming and brilliant symbol of the holiday season. Tourists and native New Yorkers alike sure do love this towering tree.

The tree will be lit daily from 5am to midnight after a special light-up night ceremony on Wednesday, December 4. On Christmas Eve, the tree is lit for 24 hours and on New Year’s Eve it is lit from 5am to 9pm. The tree goes dark for the season in mid-January.

More than 50,000 multi-colored LED lights wrap around the branches. It’s topped with a three-dimensional Swarovski star that weighs 900 pounds and sparkles in 3 million crystals.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s gorgeous, after-dark illuminated spectacular is back from November 22 through January 5, 2025.

Lightscape, an illuminated trail of art from local and international artists, features the iconic Winter Cathedral and a larger Fire Garden—all set to over a million lights, color and music. 

As always, a curated playlist of music brings the light art to life, and there will be food concessions along the trail that will still offer seasonal treats like hot cocoa, hot cider, and mulled wine as well as light bites, cookies and sweets.

Tickets are now on sale for the event ranging from $24-$45 for adults and $12 to $23 for kids, depending on the visit date.

Turns out, the North Pole knows how to throw quite a party. Join in on the fun at Santa's Secret, a seductive speakeasy and immersive wonderland that's back in NYC for a fourth year. 

Here's what's on tap at this adults-only holiday extravaganza: Delightfully cheeky characters, including mischievous living toys, seductive gingerbread ladies, and the famed very jacked lumberjack. The journey culminates at Santa's Secret Speakeasy, where guests will enjoy a five-piece band led by powerhouse vocalist Inyang Bassey; a dazzling variety show featuring burlesque, aerialists and jaw-dropping acts; themed cocktails; and food by Michelin-starred chef Richard Farnabe.

This year, the event is moving to a massive new location: 548 West 22nd Street in Chelsea, which will turn 26,000 square feet into a festive playground. Just don't let Santa party too hard—or how will he deliver all the presents with a hangover?!

The show runs from November 29 until December 31. Tickets start at $75/person.

Within Grand Central Terminal, find the New York Transit Museum's 20th annual Holiday Train Show, an ode to all kinds of locomotives. You'll feel positively giant while wandering around the 34-foot-long display, festooned with miniature versions of city landmarks such as the Brooklyn Bridge and the Empire State Building. Watch as Lionel model trains depart from a miniature replica of Grand Central. Then they travel over the river (the East River, to be exact) and through the wood to reach their final destination, the North Pole.

The Holiday Train Show will be on view at Grand Central Terminal through February 2025. The free show is open Monday-Friday, 10am-7:30pm; Saturday-Sunday, 10am-6pm; and closed major holidays. Find it in the shuttle passage on 42nd Street and Park Avenue, adjacent to the Station Master’s Office.

The beloved New York holiday train tradition at the New York Botanical Garden, going on for over 30 years, is back and bigger than ever.

Watch model trains zip past nearly 200 famous New York landmarks, like the Empire State Building, Radio City Music Hall, the Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge and Rockefeller Center—all made of natural materials such as leaves, cinnamon sticks, twigs, bark and berries. The garden meticulously maintains its collection of 25 G-scale model trains that’ll chug along a nearly half-mile track (which is also overhead) in the warmth of the Conservatory.  

This year's holiday train show will take place from November 16 through January 20, 2025 in the Bronx. 

Austin McCormick and his risqué neo-Baroque dance-theater group Company XIV present a lavish erotic reimagining of the classic holiday tale, complete with circus performers, operatic singers and partial nudity. The word nutcracker has customarily conjured innocent wonder; now be ready to add glitter pasties, stripper poles and comically large stuffed penises to the toys in wonderland. Definitely leave the kids at home. 

The show's running now through February 1.

The Dyker Heights Christmas Lights display has definitely earned its stripes as one of the best New York attractions. What’s not to love about all that razzle-dazzle to get you in the Christmas spirit?

The Brooklyn neighborhood is home to the most over-the-top Christmas light decorations with life-size Santas, sleighs, snowmen and some houses even bump Christmas carols from loudspeakers. Crowds of all ages flock to the Kings County neighborhood to wander down the multiple blocks and avenues.

The queen of Christmas herself, Mariah Carey, is the focus of a seasonal pop-up bar on the fourth floor of Virgin Hotels at 1227 Broadway near 30th Street through December 29.

It's dubbed Mariah Carey Black Irish Holiday Bar, a call-out to the artist's Irish cream liqueur brand. Inside the winter wonderland, guests will be able to snap photos alongside a custom "All I Want for Christmas Is You" neon sign (it's the iconic song's 30th anniversary!), sit on a festive wreath to actually recreate Carey's Christmas album, look through a lyric wall, interact with a Black Irish Christmas tree and even write a letter to Carey herself.

You can snag tickets to the 90-minute experience right here. Each pass includes a welcome signature Black Irish cocktail!

Sure, the holidays are something to be enjoyed, but sometimes, they're something to be endured. Opening on November 22 and running until December 28, The Second City New York will present their new Mainstage comedy show, "Wreck the Halls: The Second City New York’s Guide to Surviving the Holidays."

Packed with original sketches, improv and variety delights, the spirited show will gift plenty of laughs as it roasts all of the things we love to loathe about the "festive" season, from the dreaded family obligations to the boring office parties to the ad nauseum Mariah Carey songs. 

Brooklyn Ballet's take on The Nutcracker, choreographed by artistic director Lynn Parkerson, emphasizes cultural and artistic diversity. Alongside sequences that hew to the classic 19th-century tradition are interludes featuring street dance, flamenco, belly dancing, Chinese dance, hoop dance, hip-hop and the Hopak, a traditional Ukrainian dance.

The 2024 edition features Kamala Saara and Jonathan Hart in the pas de deux and krump specialist Brian "HallowDreamz" Henry as the Rat King, along with Aliesha Bryan, the Eva Dance Studio, Sira Melikian, ShanDien LaRance and Michael “Big Mike” Fields. Live music is proviced by beatboxer Baba Israel, violinist Zafir Tawil, accordionist Mikhail Smirnoff and dizi floutist Yimin Miao.

As Andy Williams croons in the iconic song, "It's the holiday season. And Santa Claus is coming 'round." But you know what else is coming 'round? STRESS. Finding gifts for everyone on your list. Baking dozens of cookies. Mailing greeting cards. The list goes on. 

This holiday season, Chelsea's ARTECHOUSE strives to create a space of calm amid the chaos with their newest immersive exhibit. Tingle Bells: An ASMR-Inspired Holiday Special will debut Thursday, November 21, and run through Sunday, January 5; general admission tickets start at $25. Equal parts wonder and calm, the experience blends nostalgic holiday warmth with cutting-edge digital art. 

Tingle Bells was inspired by the powers of ASMR (autonomous sensory meridian response), which is known for eliciting tingling sensations through auditory and visual stimuli. It's designed to be, "oddly satisfying," as event organizers explain. 

George Balanchine's magical 1954 production, set to Tchaikovsky's timeless score, includes the full New York City Ballet company, two casts of School of American Ballet students, scenery by Rouben Ter-Arutunian, costumes by Karinska and lighting by Mark Stanley, after Ronald Bates's original concept. 

The show is a magical occasion: Along with a one-ton Christmas tree that grows from 12 to 40 feet, there's a snowstorm of blizzard proportions and a Mother Ginger with a nine-foot-wide skirt. In the end, however, Balanchine's choreography is what holds it all together. It's enchanting, and it never grows old.

With its 1960s setting, comic-book–style art design and cross-dressing lyrical dancers, this is one of the kookiest productions of The Nutcracker.

Using the entirety of Tchaikovsky’s composition and including a section of the original E.T.A. Hoffmann story that even the original version of the ballet omitted, Mark Morris Dance Group’s take—which returns to BAM this yeat for the first time since 2018—is still fresh and very, very fun, especially after a few boozy hot cocoas during intermission.

Festooned with more than 1,000 meticulously hand-folded paper ornaments, this year’s 13-foot-tall tree at the American Museum of Natural History is inspired by the theme "Jumping for Joy" in honor of our 2024 Leap Year. The tree features specially crafted origami creations inspired by the museum's hopping, pouncing, and leaping creatures.

Some of the pieces decorating the greenery include rabbits, kangaroos, grasshoppers, frogs, squirrels, and cicadas, along with those depicting iconic museum exhibits like the Blue Whale and Tyrannosaurus rex.

You can see the tree with museum admission starting on November 25, 2024. Find it in the Ellen V. Futter Gallery on the first floor. 

Before you even see these gingerbread creations, you’ll smell their sweet-spicy aromas wafting through the halls. Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off has taken over the Museum of the City of New York once again bringing holiday cheer with 20 stunningly beautiful gingerbread structures.

Each one emulates an iconic part of the city, from the Wonder Wheel to the Prospect Park Boathouse to a bodega (complete with a bodega cat, of course). Feast your eyes upon them this holiday season. Go see them all at Museum of the City of New York in East Harlem now through January 12. 

New York City has plenty of on-the-reindeer’s-nose holiday pop-up bars to immerse yourself in the spirit of the season—with spirits—throughout the most wonderful time of the year. Get ready for festive spiked eggnog, "naughty" shots, Coquito Ho Ho Hos, and over-the-top holiday decor.

Half the fun of holiday shopping in New York is ogling the tricked-out window displays along Fifth Avenue that pop up to coincide with the merriest, spendiest time of the year. 

The Dyker Heights Christmas Lights display has definitely earned its stripes as one of the best New York attractions. What’s not to love about all that razzle-dazzle to get you in the Christmas spirit?

The Brooklyn neighborhood is home to the most over-the-top Christmas light decorations with life-sized Santas, sleighs, snowmen and some houses even bump Christmas carols from loudspeakers. Crowds of all ages flock to the Kings County neighborhood to wander down the multiple blocks and avenues.

Hordes dress up as Christmas characters from gingerbread cookies and reindeer, but of course, Kris Kringle is the most popular choice of those who attend this boozy bar crawl.

This is certainly one of the most controversial Christmas events in town, so try to avoid acting like a bad Santa. This year's SantaCon is on Saturday, December 14, from 10am-8pm, across Midtown.

Jump rope has come a long way since you were a kid, as this annual competition demonstrates. Marvel at the prowess of international students as they compete in one of the biggest rope-skipping contests in the world, hosted by the National Double Dutch League at the historic Apollo Theater on Saturday, December 7. 

This family-friendly event features teams of all ages from the United States and across the globe—cheer them on as they show off their skills. Routines are set to pop music, so brace yourself for a high-energy show!

Jamaica, Queens' annual three-day celebration is back for its 10th year, running from December 6 through 8. Expect food vendors, an artisan holiday winter village, Christmas displays, the largest Christmas tree lighting in Queens (on Friday night) as well as Santa and toy giveaways (on Saturday), live musical and dance performances and much more. 

The Parade on Rockaway—the biggest parade in the whole borough—will take place on Sunday, stretching from 130th Street to 143rd Street on Rockaway Boulevard. 

Sail into the holiday spirit aboard Circle Line’s Holiday Harbor Lights Cruise, running from November 29 through January 5. Decked out with twinkling holiday lights, green garland, Christmas trees and other jolly decor, the festive—and heated!—boats will tour you around the Hudson River. Take in the stunning New York skyline as an informative guide shares fun facts about the city’s most iconic landmarks. 

This year's cruise is complete with a “Create-Your-Own-Santa Hat” station to get all passengers in the holiday mood. A menu of seasonal cocktails inspired by the Christmas Spectacular Starring the Radio City Rockettes are available, with highlights like the Salted Caramel Rockette-tini or the Rum Punch Kick Line. Don't forget to leave a gift inside the Toys for Tots donation box for families who may not be able to afford gifts during Christmas.

The cruise departs each day at 7pm and you can buy tickets here starting at $45.

NYC is packed with holiday markets every fall with holiday spirit and unique gifts. While fancy Christmas window displays may entice you, NYC's holiday markets offer a chance to shop local. With everything from clothing to holiday ornaments to artwork, there's something for everybody on your holiday shopping list.

Shopping for the perfect gift doesn't have to be stressful; make it fun at these holiday markets.

Get into the holiday spirit with NYC darlings Svetlana's Big Band at two shows in December. No matter which show you choose—or both!—you can count on classic big band sound meeting thrilling modern arrangements, all with Svetlana’'s dulcet vocals and captivating stage presence.

Hear a dynamic set featuring Svetlana's favorite holiday songs, including big band arrangements from her chart-topping recording, serpentine jazz love songs, and uplifting originals. As she puts it: "let the enchanting melodies quicken your pulse and thaw your heart from the winter blues!"

On December 8 is the Birdland Holiday Big Band Show; get tickets here for $35-$45. On December 14, it's the Blue Note Holiday Show; tickets range from $32-$37. 

Visit the Schomburg Shop Holiday Market at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture during the holiday season for its expanded market which will have artwork, clothing, jewelry, stationery, and more for all ages from small businesses owned by people of color and local Harlemites. It runs November 8 and 9 and December 20 and 21 from 11am to 5:30pm.

Coney Island isn't just a summertime destination anymore. Luna Park's Frost Fest is home to a 35-foot tree sure to get you into the holiday spirit, plus photo opps with Santa, a holiday market, and an ice skating rink. 

New in 2024 is the Candy Cane Chute rapid slide that you are sure to want to ride down endlessly. Don't forget that the iconic Coney Island Cyclone will also be open during select days this season, so make sure to save some time to experience the thrilling ride as well.

Frost Fest will take over Coney Island from November 23-January 1, 2025 on select weekdays and holidays, plus Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Read more about the offerings right here.

You’ll get a kick out of this holiday stalwart, which still features Santa, wooden soldiers and the dazzling Rockettes. In recent years, new music, more eye-catching costumes and advanced technology have been introduced to bring audience members closer to the performance.

In the signature kick line that finds its way into most of the big dance numbers, the Rockettes’ 36 pairs of legs rise and fall like the batting of an eyelash, their perfect unison a testament to the disciplined human form. This is precision dancing on a massive scale—a Busby Berkeley number come to glorious life—and it takes your breath away.

Shop 'til you drop at FAD Market, a curated fashion, art and design pop-up marketplace, which is back for 2024. Expect to see your favorite makers plus brand new creatives to help you live smarter, gift better and support local businesses. FAD—which stands for Fashion, Art and Design—takes over different venues with a horde of independent vendors and creators. Admission is free and dogs are welcome!

Peruse handmade jewelry, apparel, skincare products, tableware, artisanal packaged food, and more. Whether you're shopping for you or a friend (or even getting an early on that holiday shopping), there are plenty of local gems to pick up. 

Here's the lineup for December:

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. New York lights up into a winter wonderland each year with Christmas trees, holiday window displays and Christmas lights. Even the most tourist-averse New Yorkers have to admit that it’s a pretty spectacular sight.

Get the most out of the holidays with our guide to the best holiday sales and holiday gift ideas, Christmas movies to watch with the family and plenty of festive things to do including Bryant Park ice skating, tree lightings and more.

The pressure is always immense to have a good time on New Year’s Eve—and have a good time you will. Ring in 2024 with a raucous amount of drinks and a good dinner with a champagne toast, or a New Year’s Eve fireworks display. You’ll find these celebrations and more with our essential guide to New Year’s Eve in New York.

Keep checking back for ticket announcements—we’ll be updating this page with new events from now through December 31.

Beneath the cobblestone streets of the Seaport, secrets hid underground for decades—until now, that is. A new walking tour led by the South Street Seaport Museum unearths the neighborhood's freaky and fascinating facts.

The museum's "Sinister Secrets of the Seaport" whisks visitors back in time for a 90-minute walking tour full of true crime tales about theft, organized crime, murder and even pirates. Tours are available for $40/adult. Whether you're a true crime buff or you're just continuing to soak up the Halloween spirit, these tours make for a memorable afternoon in a historic neighborhood.

Puppet master Jonathan Rockefeller's kaleidoscopic adaptation of Eric Carle’s classic children’s stories is a pure, kid-pleasing joy. The ravenous larva doesn’t appear until the final quarter, but there are plenty of colorful puppets, dancing and music to entrance youngsters until then.

Along with the main story, the show dramatizes three of these seven other Carle books: 10 Little Rubber Ducks, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Very Busy Spider, Mister Seahorse, The Artist Who Painted a Blue Horse, Dream Snow and Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See. (A different combination of stories is performed at each show.)

An exhibit that tells the story of Paris' Notre-Dame cathedral has landed in New York. History fanatics and art buffs can make their way to Morningside Heights' massive Cathedral of St. John the Divine to experience this multimedia event. 

As a part of the church's art collection this winter, "Notre-Dame de Paris: The Augmented Exhibition" promises an interactive tour of crucial moments in the cathedral’s 850-year history, from its inception in 1163 to the current process of restoration after the 2019 fire. 

Admission to the exhibit costs $25 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $10 for children, with hours every day from 10am to 5pm.

Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary! is not just funny: It is dizzyingly, breathtakingly funny, the kind of funny that ambushes your body into uncontained laughter. Stage comedies have become an endangered species in recent decades, and when they do pop up they tend to be the kind of funny that evokes smirks, chuckles or wry smiles of recognition. That's not so at Oh, Mary! where the audience burst into applause at the end of every scene.

Fasten your seatbelts: This 80-minute show is a fast and wild joy ride. In this hilariously anachronistic historical burlesque, Escola plays—who else?—Mary Todd Lincoln, in the weeks leading up to her husband’s assassination. Boozy, vicious and miserable, the unstable and outrageously contrary Mary is oblivious to the Civil War and hell-bent on achieving stardom as—what else?—a cabaret singer.

If Netflix’s Squid Game was one of your favorite shows and you’re looking forward to the new season premiere this December, you’ll want to try your hand at some of the challeneges at Squid Game: The Experience here in NYC.

Set within Manhattan Mall (100 West 33rd Street by Sixth Avenue), you get into teams of up to 24 people each to complete challenges across 60 minutes, including those that appeared on the TV show (yes, you’ll get to try your hand at the iconic Red Light Green Light) plus a number of brand-new ones built specifically for the experience. Once done playing, you can enjoy a night market offering a variety of Korean and international sweet and savory foods, plus drinks.

The pun, that most democratic of jokes: At its best, it’s sublimely satisfying to the reptilian part of our brains that loves easy comedy. At its worst, it produces a groan so gut-deep, it’s almost as good as a belly laugh. The form is mined for all it’s worth at this monthly tournament, hosted by Rodney Dangerfield impersonator Fred Firestone and his daughter, Jo.

A fixture on the NYC comedy landscape for more than a decade, this show at Littlefield in Brooklyn is like a rap battle, only much nerdier. Hear pun pros face-off in the All-Star Tournament of Pun Champions where punsters deliver two-minute pun-stand-up routines, after only two minutes of preparation.

The last show of 2024 is on December 11, so don't miss it!

Heading to Madison Square Garden to watch the Knicks play is an iconic night out in NYC. The basketball team made the playoffs recently in the 2020-21 season led by forward Julius Randle and RJ Barrett. 

Catch them at MSG now!

The Urban Bush Women dance company is celebrating 40 years of “building community and taking risks that push the culture forward.” To honor the momentous occasion, the troupe has put together a (very) full calendar of performances, special events, digital content, and opportunities to gather. Here's what's coming up: 

— November 13: When Black Women+ Speak at Harlem Stage Gatehouse

— December 6-7: Solo Meditations at 92NY

— January 10-March 27, 2025 - Lineage Legacy and Liberation: An Examination of Urban Bush Women’s Art-making and Community Organizing Praxis in NYC, exhibit at the Apollo Theatre

— February 5-8: SCAT!...The Complex Lives of Al & Dot, Dot & Al Zollar