Tour de Christmas 2012: In which I (belatedly) share photos of NYC Holiday displays

[It took an entire year to get these posts up on the blog but finally, finally I can say my 2012 Tour de Christmas post is up.]

I love Christmas and in recent years I’ve been working on making my own traditions. That has meant hosting a cookie swap party every year. It also means something I call Tour de Christmas which is a one-day blitz of all of the likely NYC tourist destinations in Manhattan including holiday trees and windows.

My friend Nicole (AKA The Book Bandit) joined me once again for this second annual Tour de Christmas.

This year Nicole and I started at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we headed to the Renaissance wing to see the museum’s Angel Tree.

The tree arguably looks the same every year but the landscape beneath the tree seemed especially intricate this year. Also, there was an elephant:

And of course photos with both myself (left) and Nicole (right) to prove we were actually there:

After that we saw a classy gingerbread house in a store window by FAO Schwarz before heading over to Bergdorf Goodman:

Bergdorf’s 2012 windows theme was the BG Follies of 2012 with each window comprising a different act. I always love Bergdorf’s windows but some of these were my favorites not just for 2012 but ever.

Act VIII featured two handsome dancers–possibly doing a tango?

Act VII had a walrus tamer (or perhaps a trainer):

My personal favorite, ACT IV had a dog trainer:

Honestly I took so many pictures at Bergdorf that this post would be a mile long if I shared all of them so consider these the highlights (I link to all of my photos at the end of this post if you’re into that kind of thing).

Here’s Nicole with a different BG window called “By Request”

And here I am with the “Naughty or Nice” window (I was obviously nice!)

We then passed Bulgari’s strange diamond snake on our way to Tiffany’s (only to see the windows, alas).

Tiffany’s again did cute little miniature windows this time with room interiors featuring jewelry, decorations and that signature Tiffany blue.

After that it was a short walk down to Rockefeller Center. We passed a few holiday displays on the way:

Including a lego Christmas window just begging to be photographed!

Until finally we came face to trunk with the Rockefeller Center Tree.

And took some obligatory quasi holiday card shots like this one:

We will leave Rockefeller Center with a final shot of the tree that I took risking life and limb (and getting yelled at by the Center’s diligent security guards):

Then we did the Lord & Taylor windows which were okay. Unfortunately the store sets suck a high standard with their displays that this year’s windows seemed weak by comparison.

And then the Macy’s windows which were so jumbled that even now I’m still not sure what I saw. Their displays have taken a significant dip since the designers started relying so heavily on smart screen technology.

And then after the Macy’s window displays it was truly the end of the Tour de Christmas 2012.

 

 

I hope this post finds  everyone in good health and high spirits whether you celebrate Christmas or a different holiday entirely (or perhaps even several at once). Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all of you, dear readers.

If you would like to see all of my photos from the Tour de Christmas 2011, you can find them on my website.

In which I get some lovely gifts and promise some others.

It may not be Christmas yet but I’ve already gotten some early gifts that I get to share here on the blog.

First, I partipated in Reddit’s  secret santa gift exchange which was interesting as it also introduced me to Reddit. (I understand about 30% of it as this point I think.)

I have no idea who my santa was BUT I have gotten this delightful print:

Since you, dear readers, are my people most of you will already recognize this print for what it is: The Police Call Box from Dr. Who printed on a dictionary page. I love dictionary page prints. And I’m fond of the call box in Dr. Who. (I like Dr. Who but I stopped watching after Donna Noble’s departure because OMG DONNA NOBLE.)

This year I also participated in the Cold Nights and Warm Books holiday swap which was a blast. I had so much fun putting together my gift and got a very lovely gift myself. Thank you so much to Enna at Squeaky Books and Emily at Emily’s Reading Room for putting this together.

Then, of course, thank you to Mariah at A Reader’s Adventure for my wonderful gift!

(And of course read on for pictures!)

Since this was a book swap, books are to be expected. Mariah was very generous sending not only Book of a Thousand Days and The Last Dragonslayer (both of which I’m looking forward to reading) but also pre-ordering Paper Valentine for me!

Then I also got a ton of cool postcard and bookmarks (including a signed one for The Archived, yay!), two rubber bracelets (the green one is for Beautiful Redemption and I’m wearing it right now), and some adorable penguin cookies.

Thanks again Mariah!

Also, in a very serendipitous turn of events, my swap package from the Book Blogger Holiday Swap came the same day I was exchanging gifts with Nicole of the Book Bandit’s blog. I say serendipitous because that swap did not run quite as smoothly this year and also because for that swap I was giving gifts to Nicole, my real life friend as regular readers might know. How crazy is all of that timing and matching!?

Thank you so much to Steph of The Fake Steph for my lovely gifts. She sent me a beautiful, soft, handmade purple scarf that is as warm and comfy as it looks, a copy of Dust Girl by Sarah Zettel, which I get more excited about every time I see it, and a chocolate orange which I am very eager to try.

Thanks again Steph!

Now for the gifts I’m promising:

My blog is getting very close to 100,000 views. When that happens I’m going to be doing a couple of things:

First: As always I will be giving away books. This includes an ARC of Prodigy, a signed ARC of The Raven Boys and some other cool books that you will definitely want.

Second: I over-estimated my holiday swap gifts so I have two wrapped mystery books to give away as part of the 100k celebration. ALSO if you happen to visit the blog and catch the stat counter at 100,000 and send me a screen shot–that’s an auto-win. Instant mystery book. Currently the blog is hovering near 96,450 views so I’m hoping to hit 100k in February. (January would be more exciting but I don’t want to over-reach.)

So there you have it! Thank you again so, so much to my lovely gift givers. I hope you all get equally lovely things this holiday season.