Light belief

Rockefeller Centre is home to what is probably New York’s most famous Christmas tree. But the 22m Norway spruce is just one of a number of trees worth visiting around the city. You can even make your own Christmas tree tour, using each stop as a jumping-off point to explore other attractions.

Braving the considerable crowds at Rockefeller Centre for a glimpse of the tree, which was lit on Tuesday night, also offers opportunities for ice-skating, for catching the view from 70 floors up at 30 Rock’s Top of the Rock observation deck, and for shopping at stores such as Rain, 59 West 49th Street, which sells bath and body products with African origins. Also nearby: Radio City Music Hall, Sixth Avenue near 50th Street; St Patrick’s Cathedral, Fifth Avenue near 51st Street; and the Museum of Modern Art, 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues.

As you walk up Fifth Avenue towards Central Park, you’ll pass famous stores like Harry Winston at 56th Street, Tiffany at 57th Street, Bergdorf Goodman at 58th Street and FAO Schwarz and the Apple store at 59th Street. Across the way is the Plaza Hotel, with an Eloise at the Plaza store in its shopping concourse.

Next on the itinerary: a pair of trees inside museums, like bookends on either side of Central Park. On the west side, at Central Park West and 79th Street, the American Museum of Natural History is home to a Christmas tree decorated with origami.

On the east side, at Fifth Avenue and 82nd Street, the tree at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is adorned with angels and a nativity scene. Its colourful, lifelike figures, 20cm to 50cm tall, were made in 18th-century Naples and depict shepherds, townspeople, animals and the three wise men.

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Met display is the diversity of the figures, which appear to represent as many different ethnic backgrounds and social classes as New York itself.

Naples in the 18th century “was a melting pot of different cultures”, explained Wolfram Koeppe, curator of the museum’s European Sculpture and Decorative Arts. The exhibit’s range of African and Asian figures, with local fishermen and vendors offering their wares, “really shows you the normal country and city life of an 18th-century metropolis in the south of Italy”, he said.

The display also offers a sanctuary from the bustle of the holidays.

Across the park, the Natural History Museum’s tree is decorated with folded paper ornaments made by volunteers from an organisation called Origami USA. A fun activity with children is to pick out origami representing familiar objects from the museum’s collection. This year’s paper decorations include: depictions of items related to space exploration to mark the 10th anniversary of the museum’s Rose Centre for Earth and Space; items from “Race to the End of the Earth”, an exhibit about journeys by rival explorers to reach the South Pole; and items from the museum’s collections of dinosaurs and other animals.

“It’s so different from every other tree,” said Sam Riviello, administrator for Origami USA. “It’s more whimsical.”

While you’re visiting the trees, be sure to see other areas of the museums, whether it’s the Met’s Egyptian collection and the recently opened “Stieglitz, Steichen, Strand” photo show, or the Natural History museum’s blue whale, planetarium or Native American exhibits.

Further uptown, the Cathedral of St John the Divine at 112th Street and Amsterdam Avenue hosts a “peace tree”, decorated with origami paper cranes. The tree will be on view from December 17. The cranes symbolise peace and are dedicated to the memory of a Japanese girl who died from leukaemia after being exposed to radiation from the World War II Hiroshima bombing.

Christmas in the Big Apple doesn’t just mean Manhattan. In the Bronx, the New York Botanical Garden is best known at this time of year for its annual Holiday Train Show, which showcases model trains amid replicas of New York landmarks, all made from plant materials. The garden also hosts a display of nine lit-up fir trees, the biggest rising 7.6m.

At the other end of the city, in Brooklyn, homeowners in the neighbourhood of Dyker Heights are known for over-the-top decorations, including trees and homes strung with rows of lights, huge inflatable Santas, nativity scenes and other extravagant displays. - The Tribune