Radio City Music Hall Archives

Merry Christmas Eve, Everyone!

12/24/2018 By: CCPearson4 Comments

It’s Christmas Eve. If you haven’t already had all of your holiday parties and family gatherings, then likely today and tomorrow will be packed with food, gifts, excited children, tons of discarded wrapping paper and the inevitable dilemma of storing all the leftovers. Maybe, too, you will take time to attend a Christmas Eve service at your church or read Luke 2 and remember how all of this began, what it meant then and what it continues to mean today.

Before we start to take our own Christmas trees down this year and pack things away until next November, I just wanted to share a few more Christmas trees that we spotted in New York. Maybe you can start hinting to whoever controls the budget at your house that you’d like to see them for yourself in 2019.

A very Merry Christmas to all of you from Steve and me.

Elaborate tree in a store window on 5th Avenue.

A tree comprised of beautiful Louis Vuitton accessories for the fashionable woman.

A tree in the entrance at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, greeting worshippers coming in for Sunday services and the yearly Christmas programs.

A tree beside a Menorah, when Hanukkah and Christmas intersect. These two symbols were in the Food Hall at The Plaza.

Tiny trees and other symbols of Christmas incorporated into the sweets served at Afternoon Tea at The Plaza.

35-foot tree made of Swarovski crystals in the lobby of Radio City Music Hall.

An unintentional self-portrait while photographing scenes in Rockefeller Center. Can you spy my Silver Fox waiting patiently for me to move along? 🙂

Christmas Experiences in New York City

12/10/2018 By: CCPearson4 Comments

It has been on my Bucket List for several years to “do New York City at Christmastime.” This was not a foodie trip, although we found some great food. This was not a shopping trip — but time for browsing holiday markets and window shopping did happen. This trip was a collection of experiences.

We flew in on a Friday and flew back home the following Tuesday. We lucked out on great weather. It was cold but not freezing, and it rained only on one day. During our 3 1/2 days in the Big Apple, we managed to fit in these activities:

We strolled through Times Square and Rockefeller Center, including the new F.A.O. Schwartz Toy Store, the big tree, and the astounding music/light display at Sak’s 5th Avenue.
We took in a Broadway play. For this visit, we saw “My Fair Lady,” one of my all-time favorites. I know every song and most of the dialogue. For this one, we took the subway to Lincoln Center and saw it in the Vivian Beaumont Theater. It was done superbly — every note, every set change, all the costumes fabulous.
We visited the new World Trade Center and the 9-11 Memorial. Sobering. Such a testament to the resilience of the citizens of NY to rise from those ashes.
We attended a service at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. (More about that in next Friday’s post).
We browsed the holiday markets at Grand Central Station and at Columbus Circle.
We gazed at the elaborate window displays along 5th Avenue.
We had Afternoon Tea at The Plaza — so delicious and elegant. This was my Christmas gift from Steve. I LOVED it!
We saw the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall featuring the Rockettes. We had seen the Rockettes in Nashville in years past, but I’m so glad we saw them in their home setting. The lighting, staging and special effects were SO MUCH BETTER in NYC.
We survived several taxi rides with Middle Eastern taxi drivers. 🙂 Actually, they were very friendly and did a good job of navigating the traffic.
We figured out which way was Downtown and which was Uptown — very important when using the subway system.
We tried real Manhattan Clam Chowder — and liked it a lot.
We averaged over 10,000 steps a day.
We were there for the first two nights of Hanukkah and saw the World’s Largest Menorah.
We stayed at the Marriott Marquis in the heart of Times Square for 2 nights and then enjoyed our biggest splurge by staying at The Plaza for the last 2 nights. Trust me. The Plaza deserves a blog post all its own. It was everything I had hoped and more.

Now, for a few photos that might tempt you to start planning your Christmas visit to NYC.

Radio City Music Hall, home of the Rockettes

Iconic keyboard in FAO Schwartz looking out onto the Rockefeller Center tree

Palm Court inside The Plaza, site of Afternoon Tea

Christmas tree in the lobby of The Plaza

The Christmas Trees of NYC (Guest Post from Weston and Tina Shelton)

12/30/2015 By: CCPearsoncomment

(One of the joys of my life has been teaching music to hundreds of young people in Hartselle and Morgan County. Through the wonder of Facebook, I am able to keep up with many of them even years later and watch as they blossom and become all God made them to be. Today’s post very likely could be given the MOST BEAUTIFUL award so far on my blog. Weston and Tina Shelton, both former students from Hartselle, recently made a Christmas trip to New York City. They graciously agreed to share both their writing and photography talents with all of you. I’m sure you will agree, after reading this and clicking on all of the photos, many more places are now added to our Bucket Lists. Thank you so much, Weston and Tina).

Photos by Weston Shelton. Be sure to click on each one.

ThereGoesConnie.com has been such a positive and uplifting social media presence, and we are honored to have been asked to write a guest post about our recent Christmas vacation to The Big Apple.
As a child, I always dreamed of Christmastime in the city. Since we are in the process of building a home and without the usual hustle and bustle of decorating and entertaining, this seemed like the perfect year to sneak away during the holidays! Now that we know New York City is such an easy trip from north Alabama, I foresee many future visits.
We arrived at the centrally located Hotel Edison on Friday evening to this lovely lobby Christmas tree.

Hotel Edison lobby

Hotel Edison is an art deco style, 1930’s boutique hotel in the heart of Times Square. If you are looking for a clean, safe and reasonably priced hotel in mid-town Manhattan, this is the place for you. If you are looking to spend significant time in the confines of the hotel and need a spacious, luxurious room, look elsewhere. After checking-in and dropping off our bags, we immediately walked the half block to Times Square where we found this high tech Christmas tree, just above which you will see the New Year’s Eve crystal ball.

The following morning we went directly to the TKTS booth in Times Square, where we purchased tickets for the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular at a great price! Beware, the TKTS line looks intimidating, but moves very quickly. From there we made our way to Radio City Music Hall where we saw our next legendary tree.

Radio City Music Hall

However, the Swarovski Christmas Tree completely caught me off guard. Said to be worth over $1 Million dollars, this tree took my breath away.

The Christmas Spectacular is truly spectacular and so much more than the Rockettes’ signature kickline. From uniforms and numbers originally choreographed in 1933, to specifically engineered snow drones that float through the room, and finally the most beautiful live nativity we have ever witnessed, the show has something for everyone and exceeds the spectacular expectation.
We then made our way through Rockefeller Center to the Top of the Rock, which was my favorite view of the city (Weston preferred the Empire State Building).

Weston and Tina at the Top of the Rock.

Upon returning to the ground, we found St. Patrick’s Cathedral and this beautiful Christmas tree and yet another beautiful nativity.

Christmas tree at St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

St. Patrick’s Cathedral nativity scene

You will notice that the baby Jesus is absent. We understand that He makes His arrival in a moving service on Christmas Eve.

Leaving the cathedral, we found The Palace hotel located on the following block along with these two Christmas trees and a sweet gingerbread palace.

Our next stop was The Plaza Hotel, where we found this well-known tree in the lobby. Here, your child can fulfill all of her Eloise dreams or have a picture taken with a Santa who is fortunate enough to get to spend his time on a white and gold gilded chaise lounge. The lower level of the Plaza features a food court that is out of this world. Crepes, chocolates, baked goods and even lobster rolls!

Plaza Hotel Christmas tree

After dark, we started making our way up 5th Avenue, taking in all of the elaborately decorated store windows and toward the larger than life light show display on the Saks Fifth Avenue building. I believe the light show has in excess of 200k lights!

We ended our evening , near where we started, at the iconic Rockefeller Christmas Tree and ice skating rink. As the tree started to twinkle, I declared this as the most fun day of my life. Weston questioned me on the huge statement, but over a week later, I still stand by my declaration.

Rockefeller Center

During the next two days, we visited the Brooklyn Bridge, 9/11 memorial pools, St. Paul’s chapel (founded in 1766 and the location of George Washington’s post inauguration prayer in 1789), floated by the Statue of Liberty, went to the top of the Empire State Building and shopped and snacked our way through Chelsea, Greenwich Village and Soho! The Christmas season has come to a close, but as you start planning your 2016 vacations definitely consider moving New York City up on your list. We’d love to help you plan your trip or hear about your past trips to the Big Apple!

Lobby of the Empire State Building

A flower shop in Chelsea

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