New York sees wacky ol’ Christmas markets
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AP
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 01, 2008 00:00
NEW YORK - New York is full of one-of-a-kind shops and ethnic neighborhoods where you can find unique merchandise in all price ranges. The city is home to several Christmas markets as well, selling everything from mittens to ornaments to arts and crafts and toys.
Some 11 million people visited New York City last year between October and December, according to NYC & Company, the city's marketing and tourism organization. Even if that number drops this year due to the economy, you're likely to find Manhattan plenty crowded over the holidays.
"The busiest time for visitation to NYC is typically the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas," said NYC & Company spokesman Chris Heywood.
People come to shop
In addition to seeing the Rockefeller Center tree and decorated windows, many December visitors come to shop. Naturally chain retailers - especially the Manhattan flagships for stores like Macy's - are a big draw. But New York is also full of one-of-a-kind shops and ethnic neighborhoods where you can find unique merchandise in all price ranges.
The city is home to several Christmas markets as well, selling everything from mittens to ornaments to arts and crafts and toys. Check out the Holiday Market in the red-and-white candy-striped tents at Union Square (East 14th Street); the Holiday Shops at Bryant Park (42nd Street and Fifth Avenue), where you'll also find a shimmering Christmas tree and a rink with free ice skating; and the 74 vendors at Grand Central Terminal's Holiday Gift Fair. Grand Central hosts its free annual "Kaleidoscope Light Show," Dec. 1 through New Year's Day, themed this year on a train ride through a snowy forest filled with carousels and magical creatures.
Be sure to include stores with international themes on your shopping tour. Takashimaya, the famous Japanese department store, has a Manhattan location at 693 Fifth Ave. (54th Street) so beautifully decorated that the displays could be in a museum. Look for accessories, cosmetics, home products, confections and teas.
Takashimaya is on the high end as Asian shopping outposts in New York go. For bargains, Elise Loehnen, editor at large at Lucky Magazine, suggests exploring the stores run by Indian merchants in Jackson Heights, Queens, by taking the No. 7 train to the Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street subway station.
In Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, stores selling produce outside often sell nonperishables inside, like woks, hard-to-find seasonings and easy-to-use mixes. They make great presents for college kids perfecting their dorm cooking or tofu-eaters looking to spice up their lives. Loehnen recommends the Kam Man Market at 200 Canal St.
From Chinatown, head north to Soho, where you'll find The Evolution Store, 120 Spring St., which sells gifts for budding Darwins and other natural history types: replica skulls and skeletons, anatomical models, posters, colorful mounted butterflies, scorpion paperweights and even flavored lollipops with genuine crickets inside.
One of Loehnen's favorite places in Soho is the Young Designers Market, 268 Mulberry St., between Prince and Houston, open weekends. The "small indie designers" change every week, and "the jewelry is particularly strong," she said.
Loehnen also recommends Kiosk, upstairs at 95 Spring St. "They do these pillows ($24) that are really popular in animal shapes," she said. "And every season they switch their focus to a different country and go on these buying sprees to bring home really unusual items."
Nearly all museum stores can be entered without paying admission to the exhibits. You'll find unusual jewelry, art books, housewares, stationery, posters and post cards in all price ranges in, among other places, the shops at the Museum of Modern Art (53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues), the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (2 E. 91st St.), and even the New York Transit Museum, which sells everything from subway map shower curtains to colorful purses made from recycled maps.
Pop-up stores and bookstores
Temporary "pop-up" stores are not unusual during the Christmas shopping season, but one at 680 Fifth Ave. is the first of its kind: a store selling the RED-branded designer merchandise that benefits African AIDS programs. The sometimes hard-to-find RED products include Converse sneakers created by artists around the world as well as other limited edition items from Armani, the Gap, Apple, Dell, Hallmark and others.
Finally, don't forget the city's specialty bookstores, including Drama Book Shop in the theater district, 250 W. 40th St.; Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, 163 W. 10th St., specializing in rare and old cookbooks, and the new Idlewild Books, 12 W. 19th St., which sells guidebooks, novels and other literature about places around the world, along with maps, globes and custom-made destination kits. Idlewild was the original name for Kennedy Airport.
"The busiest time for visitation to NYC is typically the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas," said NYC & Company spokesman Chris Heywood.
People come to shop
In addition to seeing the Rockefeller Center tree and decorated windows, many December visitors come to shop. Naturally chain retailers - especially the Manhattan flagships for stores like Macy's - are a big draw. But New York is also full of one-of-a-kind shops and ethnic neighborhoods where you can find unique merchandise in all price ranges.
The city is home to several Christmas markets as well, selling everything from mittens to ornaments to arts and crafts and toys. Check out the Holiday Market in the red-and-white candy-striped tents at Union Square (East 14th Street); the Holiday Shops at Bryant Park (42nd Street and Fifth Avenue), where you'll also find a shimmering Christmas tree and a rink with free ice skating; and the 74 vendors at Grand Central Terminal's Holiday Gift Fair. Grand Central hosts its free annual "Kaleidoscope Light Show," Dec. 1 through New Year's Day, themed this year on a train ride through a snowy forest filled with carousels and magical creatures.
Be sure to include stores with international themes on your shopping tour. Takashimaya, the famous Japanese department store, has a Manhattan location at 693 Fifth Ave. (54th Street) so beautifully decorated that the displays could be in a museum. Look for accessories, cosmetics, home products, confections and teas.
Takashimaya is on the high end as Asian shopping outposts in New York go. For bargains, Elise Loehnen, editor at large at Lucky Magazine, suggests exploring the stores run by Indian merchants in Jackson Heights, Queens, by taking the No. 7 train to the Roosevelt Avenue/74th Street subway station.
In Chinatown in Lower Manhattan, stores selling produce outside often sell nonperishables inside, like woks, hard-to-find seasonings and easy-to-use mixes. They make great presents for college kids perfecting their dorm cooking or tofu-eaters looking to spice up their lives. Loehnen recommends the Kam Man Market at 200 Canal St.
From Chinatown, head north to Soho, where you'll find The Evolution Store, 120 Spring St., which sells gifts for budding Darwins and other natural history types: replica skulls and skeletons, anatomical models, posters, colorful mounted butterflies, scorpion paperweights and even flavored lollipops with genuine crickets inside.
One of Loehnen's favorite places in Soho is the Young Designers Market, 268 Mulberry St., between Prince and Houston, open weekends. The "small indie designers" change every week, and "the jewelry is particularly strong," she said.
Loehnen also recommends Kiosk, upstairs at 95 Spring St. "They do these pillows ($24) that are really popular in animal shapes," she said. "And every season they switch their focus to a different country and go on these buying sprees to bring home really unusual items."
Nearly all museum stores can be entered without paying admission to the exhibits. You'll find unusual jewelry, art books, housewares, stationery, posters and post cards in all price ranges in, among other places, the shops at the Museum of Modern Art (53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues), the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (2 E. 91st St.), and even the New York Transit Museum, which sells everything from subway map shower curtains to colorful purses made from recycled maps.
Pop-up stores and bookstores
Temporary "pop-up" stores are not unusual during the Christmas shopping season, but one at 680 Fifth Ave. is the first of its kind: a store selling the RED-branded designer merchandise that benefits African AIDS programs. The sometimes hard-to-find RED products include Converse sneakers created by artists around the world as well as other limited edition items from Armani, the Gap, Apple, Dell, Hallmark and others.
Finally, don't forget the city's specialty bookstores, including Drama Book Shop in the theater district, 250 W. 40th St.; Bonnie Slotnick Cookbooks, 163 W. 10th St., specializing in rare and old cookbooks, and the new Idlewild Books, 12 W. 19th St., which sells guidebooks, novels and other literature about places around the world, along with maps, globes and custom-made destination kits. Idlewild was the original name for Kennedy Airport.