Christmas in NYC: Macy's Santaland

When we first dreamed up this trip last December, there were three absolutely-must-do's on our list: 1) seeing the Rockefeller tree, 2) Going ice skating somewhere iconic, and 3) Visiting the Santa Claus at Macy's fabled Santaland. I was especially excited about #3 for Jake's sake, and Santaland exceeded all of our expectations. It was magical!

First thing Monday morning, we bundled up our little elf and hopped on the subway to 34th Street. We arrived at Macy's about twenty minutes before all the crowds did, which meant we got to wander through Santaland at our own pace without any semblance of a line. The adventure begins with "boarding" a train, walking through the train cars, and then arriving at the North Pole at night. Santaland is just what it should be -- bright, colorful and happy, full of toys and elves and Christmas cheer under thousands of twinkling lights. A child's dream come true! We loved looking at all of the fun and elaborate displays as we made our way toward Santa Claus.

As amazing as Santaland was... "Santa" himself was sort of disappointing. This certain Santa's helper just wasn't nearly as good as we all know the real jolly ol' man is. When we told him that Jake can say "ho, ho, ho," Santa said "ho, ho, ho" .... in the most girly, high-pitched voice we've ever heard. Jake's "ho, ho, ho" is legitimately ten times better. So that was kind of interesting-in-a-bad-way, and so was the "blue steel" face he made in all the pictures. Santa didn't smile once! He really was just awkward. Jake was kind of like, "Who is this weirdo?" And so were we. Ha. But thankfully, Jake met a much better Santa's helper later, and Santaland itself was still totally worth the trip. I mean, look at it!

Macy's on 34th Street really goes above and beyond for Christmas, and we loved it!