Our very favorite things to do during the holidays in New York City is visit the Bryant Park Winter Village. It opened for the season last Saturday, and we excellently headed there last weekend on our first of what will be many trips.
The Winter Village at Bryant Park is part holiday market with over 150 vendors nestled into “jewel box” houses selling everything from apparel, jewelry, home goods, and much more. It’s a great place to find some unique Christmas gifts.
We were excited to see that Pamela Barsky has a shop set up this year. We are long time fans of Pamela Barsky products, and each own several of these cotton pouches. They are great for travel and have the funniest sayings printed on them.
We discovered Melsy’s Illustrations at the market last year, and between Shelby, Allix, and I we own an embarrassingly high amount of her illustrations. We were so excited to pop into her shop to see all her new prints. She also has mugs, notepads, phone cases and all sorts of fun stuff. She also does custom illustrations.
If you’re visiting New York for the holiday’s and want a great souvenir to take home with you to remind you of your trip, be sure to stop by one of the several ornament shops to find the perfect one!
This store was closed when were were walking by last weekend, but just peeking through the window it looked to have lots of cute things so we’ll have to make sure to hit it on our next trip.
In addition to shopping, the Winter Village is also home to New York City’s only free ice skating rink. Which obviously means it’s always very crowded. Going on a weekday during the day will be your best bet, if that’s an option for you. There is no admission to the rink, but there is a small fee if you need to rent skates. If skating isn’t your thing, just sitting and people watching is sometimes more fun than actually skating 🙂
The Winter Village has always had food options, but this year there is a whole dedicated food section with some very exciting new additions. We always hit up Home Frite at Smorgasburg so we are so excited to see them now at Bryant Park. Public Fare, from Danny Meyer of Shake Shack fame (among other things), is a great cafe offering coffee, pastries, sandwiches, etc. Breezy Hill Orchard has THE BEST gingerbread men cookies you will ever eat. And Whoops macrons are some of our favorites and make great hostess gifts.
The shops at the Bryant Park Winter Village are open daily from now through January 2nd from 11AM – 8PM. Skating is open daily from 8AM – 10PM.
-Ash xx
Such a cute little area!
Ya’ll are seriously making my list of places to visit in NYC so long, that I would need a month of just exploring. 🙂