The first time I had gone to New York City was in December of 2021. The bright and colorful Christmas tree was located right at Rockefeller Center, just above the ice skating rink. Through every street there was either someone singing Christmas songs, couples drinking hot cocoa from street vendors, or families walking for a nice dinner.

When I was there in 2021, one of the activities we did was visit an Ice Cream Museum. It was a tour, and in between each room our group got either an ice cream cone, ice cream sample, or some type of dessert. At the very end, there was a slide into a literal pool of sprinkles.

Another activity my family did was, of course, go ice skating. It was almost impossible to even skate 10 feet, but once we all got the hang of it, it was a lot more fun and easier. When we went to check in for our skating time, there were stickers given to us that had a certain color, and that determined when my family and the others in our group had to get off the rink. Everybody gets one hour, so when that hour passes for example, if we had pink stickers, someone over the speaker or intercom would say anyone that had pink stickers would have to get off because their time was up.

The second time we went to NYC again was during Christmas time in 2023. It was so much fun being able to go back there and seeing familiar scenes and the big Christmas tree again.

On either the first or second day my sister, mom, and I went to a Balloon Museum. There was a bunch of different rooms that were mostly for taking pictures, and there were also some hands-on activites. At the very end, there was a room with VR headsets that everyone put on, and it showed us a little film, which made it look really cool and real.

Throughout that trip we went to a lot of nice dinners, breakfasts, and also went ice skating again.

Overall, I would most definitely recommend planning a winter vacation to NYC during Christmas because it is really cool to see how much different it is from home and how much more cheerful it is there.