Tour of trees: Images of NYC's best Christmas trees
Christmastime in New York City is a special time of the year — everyone is in an over-the-top cheery mood (as good as it gets for a city voted the rudest in the nation) and the holiday decorations are nothing short of spectacular.
And while other U.S. cities have one or two prominent Christmas trees on display, NYC has dozens — if not hundreds — that are uniquely dressed for the season. Some are out in the open, others in lobbies. It’s hard to walk down any block without seeing one.
Four years ago, I started a Christmas Eve tradition of trying to uniquely and creatively capture photos of as many trees as possible in one night. In 2019, I managed to visit seven of them in a span of about six hours.
Equipped with a single lens attached to my Nikon Z6 — a 135mm Zeiss manual focus apochromatic (apo) — my adventure started off in Lower Manhattan. Follow along below as I give you a tour of trees.
The first tree sighting wasn’t super impressive — it was in the window of a bank. But I was able to snap an image that aligned a woman’s shadow perfectly with the tree, making for a pretty interesting photo.
The first ‘real’ stop was at the South Street Seaport. The tree here is always nicely decked out and is brilliantly lit.
The character of the Seaport District also adds some charm to visiting this tree.
Even the ships docked at the nearby port participate in the festivities.
Here, a cab driver looks out the window and points toward the East River as he waits for a passenger. Though, there wasn’t much pedestrian traffic this night.
While a bit off the path most tourists take when venturing around Manhattan, this area is a must-see for anyone looking to be immersed in a small town-like holiday delight.
Next, I headed over to Wall Street, where a massive tree was erected in front of the New York Stock Exchange.
The tree is situation directly in front of the NYSE’s iconic columns, which are are lit up for the occasion.
The impact of the full scene is best viewed in landscape.
The overall display of color here is impressive.
And in front of this display is the “Fearless Girl” statue, which stands facing the columns of the stock exchange. The position of the bronze statue makes for a pretty great shot in front of the tree.
The close proximity of Wall Street to the South Street Seaport District makes it easy to check out both sites in a relatively short period.
The third stop landed me at the Oculus, which serves as a shopping mall and transit hub close to the World Trade Center. While there is no one ‘big’ tree here, the holiday decor is pretty wild.
Blue light was projected on the ceiling of the structure in an apparent attempt to make it seem more wintery.
The ground floor has full neighborhood’s worth of decorations, including this snowman.
Sometimes photographers have to put themselves in awkward and vulnerable positions to capture the best shots. I’m not afraid to lie on the ground to get a unique angle, and my attempt to do that was captured by a woman who was standing nearby. She came over and told me she took my photo, and then sent it to me.
The result of my efforts are shown in the next two shots.
The architecture of the building definitely offers great opportunities to take some unique photographs.
Stop No. 4 took me a subway ride up to Greenwich Village, home to Washington Square Park. The train was not crowed at 11:15 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Remember my reference to lobby trees? They’re really everywhere, and it’s always fun to get a peek at them through the entranceways.
This tree at Washington Square Park has moved its position from year-to-year, but it’s always near the arch. Sometimes it’s on the north side (like this year), other times it’s been on the south side or even directly under the arch. Any way, it’s a pretty stunning scene.
What I love about this setup is that the World Trade Center can be seen behind the tree on one side…
… while the Empire State Building is in view from the other side.
A little later, I captured a man standing a little farther back, allowing more of the arch to show in the frame.
What I typically like to do in WSP is venture around the corners of the park in search of unique openings to capture the arch and tree combo.
Stop five was a quick one, but nevertheless a good one. The tree at Madison Square Park in the Flatiron District is a glistening display of Manhattan Christmas cheer. Since this pine tree sits between the original Shake Shake and the widely-photographed Flatiron Building, many tourists likely stumble upon it unintentionally.
The next tree to see was at Rockefeller Center in Midtown Manhattan. Just down the street, though, is the can’t-miss display of gigantic holiday bulbs in front of Radio City Music Hall.
This backdrop serves as a non-stop selfie station for both visitors and even native New Yorkers.
Every storefront in this area is full of enticing goods that try to lure in the tourists.
Once I got to the tree, it didn’t take long before I was ‘caught’ sneaking in photos of tourists taking photos in front of New York City’s most famous and well-known Christmas tree.
And while the crowds are pretty big here, there are police officers everywhere — so it’s easy to feel safe, even if they take a brea for some grub.
I’m usually on the search for some shots that display some sort of reflection, like next to a window or even a puddle. But this particular angle about a half-block from the tree resulted in an effect I’d never seen before — with the streaking horizontal lines.
Using a 135mm lens can make it difficult to capture the full picture from up close, so I improvised. There was no shortage of people snapping shots of the tree with their cellphones.
A cool story here — one of the couples I spotted and starting photographing appeared to be having the best time. Dressed in Santa hats, their smiles were genuine and they exuded happiness.
After taking a series of photos, I realized I should get their contact information so I could send them some of these photos. Ali and Chris of central New Jersey told me this was the anniversary of their engagement. Chris proposed to Ali inside St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Christmas Eve a few years ago.
The couple has since gotten married and decided to start a new tradition on this special day. They first stopped at the church where Chris popped the question to light a candle in remembrance of a relative, and then they were walking around the city handing out sandwiches to homeless people. They had a red sack with dozens of ready-to-eat meals.
What a treat it was to meet them and learn their inspiring story.
There really was no more appropriate place to see them than in front of this monster tree at 30 Rock.
It was awesome to see how technology could bring people to the experience of seeing a tree, whether they were across the city or around the world.
Of all of the trees in the city, the Rockefeller Center tree is the biggest and most visited.
It even has its own Twitter account, which takes on a humorous and snarky tone.
It’s always fun to see how people react to seeing the tree — their smiles say it all.
The seventh and final stop was Lotte New York Palace, a luxury hotel just a few blocks from 30 Rock. The time: 2:24 a.m. on Christmas morning.
The gates were locked, but the display was still amazing. One large tree was set up outside, while at least two indoor installations were in view through the back windows.
What a fun adventure this was. Thanks so much for check out this post, and hope you enjoyed it. Please leave any feedback or comments below — would love to know which image was your favorite. Happy holidays!
- Mike