The best things to do in the winter in NYC

At Sip & Stitch, create your very own custom handbag with the guidance of purse pro Anthony Luciano. As a longtime handbag artistan and a fashion expert, Luciano will share tips and tricks for making a handbag that's perfect for your personal style. 

The lively workshops are held in Luciano’s Garment District studio, which is packed with vintage ephemera, beautiful decor, and plenty of purses to spark your inspiration. Even if you’re not a crafty person, Luciano and his team will make sure you leave with a handbag you’re proud to carry. 

Prices start at $175, depending on which workshop you choose.

The Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park has returned in all its holiday glory. On the grounds, you can peruse more than 180 shopping and food kiosks—all at one of the best NYC parks. Expect loads of handmade, unique and New York City-specific gifts for your family and friends. Work up an appetite at the 17,000-square-foot ice-skating rink and then fill up at the rinkside pop-up restaurant called The Lodge for festive cocktails and hearty food.

The experience will be open through March 2, 2025.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s gorgeous, after-dark illuminated spectacular is back through January 5, 2025. Lightscape, an illuminated trail of art from local and international artists, featuring the iconic Winter Cathedral, 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. This year’s show offers off-peak and peak pricing, ranging from $24-$45 for adults and $12 to $23 for kids. Catch it through January 5.

New York City is full of free outdoor art that you don't even have to go to a museum to see. Sculptures, murals and photographs can be found in its parks, sidewalks and on its buildings!

Best of all, it costs you nothing to pay a visit. From a massive pigeon to chairs perched in the sky to a giant rapping robot, here's our guide to making a DIY art crawl.

In NYBG's wildly popular diorama, more than a dozen model railway trains traverse an incredibly detailed New York City scene, including such landmarks as the Empire State Building and Radio City Music Hall, made of natural materials such as leaves, twigs, bark and berries.

The production consists of nearly 200 scaled NYC buildings and structures like the Statute of Liberty and Grand Central Station, re-created using barks, leaves, branches and other materials you might spot while strolling through a garden. 

Catch it through January 20, 2025.

The clothes we put on our bodies every day don't just keep us warm or covered or in fashion. They also say something. Clothing conveys meaning—sometimes in direct ways like "I'm mourning" and sometimes in indirect ways like "screw the status quo." 

A new exhibit titled "Real Clothes, Real Lives: 200 Years of What Women Wore" at the New-York Historical Society digs into how clothing has played a crucial role in the lives of everyday women. The exhibit, on view through June 22, 2025, explores how women have influenced, adapted and defied societal expectations through clothing. See a wide array of women's clothing, from a Depression-era house dress to a psychedelic micro mini to an Abercrombie & Fitch wool suit from 1917. Unlike most other women's fashion exhibitions, there's not a ball gown in sight, and that's exactly what makes this show so special. 

While the world may feel like Ken's Mojo Dojo Casa House these days, at this Manhattan museum, it's Barbie's universe. The Museum of Arts and Design in Columbus Circle is showcasing Barbie: A Cultural Icon, a sprawling, two-story exhibition that charts Barbie's historic beginnings, her fashion eras and her future. It's on view through March 16, 2025.

At the exhibit, see vintage Barbie clothing, step into a replica of Barbie's Dream House, and pose for a photo inside her pink car.

Carreau Club, the nation’s first pétanque bar, has added an indoor location to its ranks with more space to get your game on while sipping a drink.

The indoor venue at Brooklyn's Industry City makes for great night out with a full bar, craft beer, wine and cocktails, plus a small deli counter. For the uninitiated, pétanque (pronounced puh-TONK) is a bocce-ball style French boules sport gaining popularity in the U.S., starting here in NYC. 

This "crazy mini-golf course" and entertainment complex straight from London offers three nine-hole golf courses across 23,000 square feet under 20-foot-high ceilings. 

For those new to the game, "crazy golf" is a British spin on mini-golf, but it's for a 21-and-over audience since craft cocktails are served by caddies on the course. In addition to the cocktails, the course offers a little more edge — think wild routes, obstacles, windmills and more. Plus, cocktails and food options abound.

Get your game on at a board game cafe near Union Square.

Filled with 500 games, Hex & Co.'s latest location is located just south of Union Square at 801 Broadway (Broadway and East 11th in Greenwich Village) and ready for gamers of all fandoms. 

This is the third location for Hex & Co., joining fellow board game cafes in the Upper West Side and Upper East Side. It also joins sister stores The Uncommons in Greenwich Village and The Brooklyn Strategist in Carroll Gardens. All of them make for an excellent place to spend a gray New York afternoon.

Wild Captives, the nation’s first female- and LGBTQ-owned archery studio, is now open. It's a place where everyone can "be their own superhero." The studio in Brooklyn’s Industry City offers empowering and fun hour-long introduction to archery classes every weekend for $45/person. 

Each intro class includes a chance to learn about different parts of the bow and safety requirements. After the lesson, each participant gets a chance to shoot the bow trying to pop a balloon pinned onto the bullseye. Intro-to-archery classes are available each Friday, Saturday and Sunday, bookable online for anyone over age 12.

When you think of Franz Kafka, there are a few words that likely come to mind: Lonely, tortured, isolated. But this depiction doesn’t actually tell the full story of Kafka, a new exhibit at The Morgan Library & Museum argues. Yes, the Czech writer known for his surrealist literary masterpieces like The Metamorphosis, did have a difficult life before dying at the age of 40 from tuberculosis.

But he was also known to be funny, a brilliant love letter writer, a good friend, and even a playful spirit. In fact, many of the solo photos we see of Kafka were really photos with other people who have been cut out of the scene over the years, Sal Robinson, curator at The Morgan explained during a tour of the new exhibit. The show, simply titled "Franz Kafka," is now on view through April 13, 2025.

Hope for snow, and if the flakes actually fall, pretend your a kid again and go sledding! Some of the best NYC parks (in all five boroughs) offer great hills for thrill seekers. After having a playful day throwing snowball fights and sliding down those slippery slopes until you become a snowperson, take us up on our recommendations for watering holes where you can grab a drink and warm up afterward.

This time of year, when sweaters replace ceiling fans and we’re already eyeing our coats, gathering around a contained flame sounds more idyllic than ever. Whether they’re in a dive, a cocktail spot or a cold weather rooftop, these are the best fireplace bars in NYC.  

Ice skating in NYC is one of the city’s most beloved seasonal traditions. While some skating rinks are open year-round, ice skating in the winter — especially around the holidays — is a special treat that will warm your soul with the spirit of the season. The iconic rink at Rockefeller Center and the Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park are bursting with holiday cheer (and fab food and drinks), while low-key rinks offer a more chill experience. 

In the heart of NoHo, Great Jones Distillery's downstairs speakeasy has been transformed once again into one of the coziest spots in NYC with gorgeous holiday decor to make it look like a winter chalet, complete with a warm fireplace, twinkling lights, ornamented trees, and a menu that'll make you want to come in from the cold. 

Sip with Great Jones' whiskey-based cocktails (Comet, Cupid, & Caramel, the returning Krampusnacht Nip, Sleighbell Sour and more) from head mixologist Collin Frazier alongside wintery bites like White Chocolate Fondue, Autumn Spiced Corn Dogs and Toastie Buttered Pretzels.

The Whiskey Wonderland will run through the holiday season into January 2025. Get a reservation here.

Steve Cohen, billed as the Millionaires’ Magician, conjures high-class parlor magic in the marble-columned Madison Room at the swank Lotte New York Palace. Audiences must dress to be impressed (cocktail attire is required); tickets start at $125, with an option to pay more for meet-and-greet time and extra tricks with Cohen after the show.

But if you've come to see a classic-style magic act, you get what you pay for. Sporting a tuxedo and bright rust hair, the magician delivers routines that he has buffed to a patent-leather gleam: In addition to his signature act—"Think-a-Drink," involving a kettle that pours liquids by request—highlights include a lulu of levitation trick and a card-trick finale that leaves you feeling like, well, a million bucks.

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.

Tucked away inside New York’s top-notch restaurants, bars and coffee shops are some of the best nooks to relax in. From fancy drinks dens with warm, winter cocktails to neighborhood bars with roaring fireplaces, these are the coziest bars and restaurants in New York. Leave the cold behind.

You'll want to spend a couple of hours inside the NYPL to see every item of its collection within "The Polonsky Exhibition of The New York Public Library’s Treasures." The artifacts on view span 4,000 years of history and includes a wide range of history-making pieces, including the only surviving letter from Christoper Columbus announcing his "discovery" of the Americas to King Ferdinand’s court and the first Gutenberg Bible brought over to the Americas...just wow! 

Majestic, incredible elephants are getting the spotlight in a new exhibit at The American Museum of Natural History. "The Secret World of Elephants" showcases both modern and ancient elephants, offering visitors a chance to see a full-scale model of a woolly mammoth, learn about what elephants eat, touch an elephant's tooth, listen to elephant calls and more.

The exhibition is now open in the museum’s LeFrak Family Gallery. An additional ticket is required to visit the exhibit; museum members can visit for free.

The House of Cannabis (a.k.a. THC NYC) is a weed museum in Soho. While the museum boasts plenty of mind-bending multi-sensory bells and whistles, it also showcases art, highlights science and confronts the social justice issues baked into cannabis prosecution.

Don't miss: The Euphorium, a massive spinning record you can sit or lay on while listening to music, from The Doors to Santana. With the room's impressive light show and hazy vibes, it's like a merry-go-round for adults.  

It's almost time to toss 2024 to the curb and ring in the new year right with the best New Year's Eve events in NYC. No matter how you’re hoping to ring in 2025—sloppy, sober, laid-back or buckwild—we’ve got the NYE celebration for you. 

So don your festive getups and get ready for a night of New Year’s Eve fireworks, amazing dinners and more first-of-the-year festivities with this roundup of the best attractions and events for ringing in the New Year.