A Guide to NYC Holiday Events: Live Music, Theater, Lights and More

Store windows beam with twinkling bulbs, a cherry-red vintage train pulls into Times Square, a busker sings a classic tune and Christmas trees illuminate the Manhattan sky: The holiday season has arrived in New York City. This year’s events include a modernized “Nutcracker,” the Rockettes’ famous kick line and an opera at a soup kitchen. Here’s a list to get you in the holiday spirit.

‘The Nutcracker’

With a one-ton Christmas tree that grows to 41 feet and a cast that includes 126 hopping, spinning and dancing children, the New York City Ballet presents its annual “George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker” at Lincoln Center’s David H. Koch Theater through Dec. 31. For a new twist on the holiday classic, “The Brooklyn Nutcracker” will be at Kings Theater on Dec. 17; it includes a hip-hop dance battle, a bohemian Mother Ginger and a journey to the Land of Sweets with a stop at the Flatbush Avenue subway station. In the Bronx, the Westchester Ballet Company, a youth troupe, will present its own interpretation of “The Nutcracker” at the Lehman Center for the Performing Arts, Dec. 16-18.

Radio City Rockettes

In this year’s “Christmas Spectacular,” the ever-meticulous Radio City Rockettes will add a new routine, “The Dance of the Frost Fairies,” alongside classics like “The Parade of the Wooden Soldiers,” which has remained mostly unchanged since 1933. Families can enjoy the Rockettes’ sky-high kicks and dazzling leotards at Radio City Music Hall through Jan. 2.

Carnegie Hall and the New York Philharmonic

Carnegie Hall will present “Sing! An Irish Christmas” with Keith and Kristyn Getty on Dec. 15 and two nights of holiday tunes on Dec. 16 and 17 with the New York Pops and the indie artist Ingrid Michaelson. And on Dec. 19, the Oratorio Society of New York, continuing one of the Hall’s longest performance streaks, will perform Handel’s “Messiah,” as it has almost every year since 1891.

Over at the new David Geffen Hall, the New York Philharmonic will also perform the “Messiah,” conducted by Masaaki Suzuki, Dec. 13-17, and Holiday Brass will offer classics by Gustav Holst and Georges Bizet on Dec. 16 and 17.

Jazz at Lincoln Center

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra’s Big Band Holidays concert, featuring the jazz vocalist Samara Joy, will run in the group’s home theater, Dec. 14-18. A special performance for children and adults with autism or sensory and communication needs will take place Dec. 18 at 2 p.m. For children ages 8 months to 8 years, Jazz at Lincoln Center will also host its annual Holiday Jazz Jam on Dec. 17: a kid-friendly party that encourages you and your little ones to sing and swing to the WeBop Family Jazz Band.

Lantern Festival

Zoo animals and sea creatures will light up with life at the Winter Lantern Festival at four locations across New York City and Long Island through Jan. 8. Families can marvel at thousands of handmade Chinese lanterns in “Journey to the East” at SIUH Community Park in Staten Island and ride illuminated swing sets at “Illuminate the Farm” at the Queens County Farm Museum.

Botanical Gardens

Gaze up at a canopy of lights at “Lightscape,” an after-dark trail at Brooklyn Botanic Garden that debuted last year to sold-out crowds. Running through Jan. 8, the one-mile pathway weaves through the 52-acre landscape and features more than 1 million shimmering bulbs that climb up branches and tree trunks as well as sculptures of paper cranes and migratory birds. And at the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx, visitors can watch model trains chug past more than 100 miniature New York landmarks such as the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, made from found materials like pine cones and cinnamon sticks at the Holiday Train Show, through Jan. 16. Also at the garden is “Glow,” one of the city’s largest holiday light experiences, which displays thousands of energy-efficient lights choreographed to sound. It will run on select dates through Jan. 14.

‘A Christmas Carol’

In a one-man production of “A Christmas Carol” that our critic called a “breathless entertainment,” Jefferson Mays plays Ebenezer Scrooge and everyone else, including a boiling potato. Unlike the 2019 Broadway production that emphasized unity and generosity, this adaptation follows Scrooge’s lonely journey to self-actualization (and might frighten children under 12); it runs at the Nederlander Theater through Jan. 1. For other variations on the Charles Dickens classic, visit the Off Broadway Players Theater through Dec. 30, or watch John Kevin Jones tell the timeless story as Dickens himself at the Merchant’s House Museum through Dec. 29. The 60-minute performance will also be available for virtual viewing through Dec. 30.

Comedy and Song

The “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars” competitors BenDeLaCreme and Jinkx Monsoon will bring laughs and glamour to the Town Hall with “The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show” on Dec. 2 and 3. On Site Opera, a company that presents operas in nontraditional venues, will perform Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” with a chorus of formerly homeless people, Dec. 8-10, in a Manhattan soup kitchen. (Attendees are encouraged to donate nonperishable food items.) And the Grammy-nominated vocal quartet Kings Return will serenade audiences at Harlem Stage with a cappella arrangements of holiday favorites, along with album originals, in “Uptown Nights: Kings Return” on Dec. 16 and 17.

Hanukkah

In both Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn and Grand Army Plaza in Midtown, visitors can witness the lighting of possibly the world’s largest Hanukkah menorahs, standing at 32 feet and weighing about 4,000 pounds each, during the Jewish festival of lights. In Brooklyn, the lighting ceremony (Dec. 18-25) includes hot latkes, children’s gifts and live music.

Kwanzaa

After two years of virtual performances, the Apollo Theater’s “Kwanzaa: A Regeneration Celebration” returns to in-person audiences Dec. 30 with Abdel R. Salaam’s Forces of Nature Dance Theater, which blends West African, house and hip-hop grooves, along with other performers to reflect on the seven principles of the holiday.

Ice Skating

For those hoping to practice their axel or strap on skates for the first time, there are several rinks across the city to choose from. Wollman Rink in Central Park offers season passes and regular and V.I.P. tickets through March. Bryant Park transforms into the Winter Village, featuring vendors with fresh baked goods and knickknacks and an ice-skating rink at its center, also open through March. Admission is free with a reservation but there is a fee for skate rentals. For another free rink (with skate rentals available), head to South Street Seaport to glide along the East River through Jan. 16. And the LeFrak Center at Lakeside in Brooklyn provides both an open-air rink overlooking Prospect Park Lake and a covered rink for ice skating or hockey lessons through April. The rink also offers value passes for frequent bladers and a skate school for beginners.