Our 3rd day in NYC and it’s Christmas. We wake up to a beautiful crisp winter morning with the light bouncing off buildings and the brown tones of Central Park’s trees. As a treat we have room service for breakfast. It’s expensive but it is Christmas morning and we’re opting for a simple day. It’s my first Christmas without parents. At 38 when you’ve spent the past 10 years wondering if this would be their last Christmas and then it is… It’s just never the same again. It was a magical time that my parents gifted me with as a child. Now? This is why we are in NYC. I’m not dealing with what Christmas is any more this year. This year we’re exploring New York. I’m taking in the view and it’s an amazing view.

From our hotel window we can see the building that was featured in Ghostbusters where they battle Goza. How cool is that?

It’s a special Christmas view. Over to the left in the mix of skyscrapers I notice a rooftop terrace and someone is sat alone with their dogs. I wonder what lead them to that point on Christmas morning. Are they alone? Are they waiting for family? It must be nice to have a rooftop terrace that you can take in the sun on Christmas morning but I’m guessing that’s not cheap. Merry Christmas random stranger.

The light creates interesting shadows on other buildings. We can see those classic NYC water towers too. We didn’t really take in the view yesterday because it was raining and overcast. Today it’s a glorious view.

I sit at the window desk to print some photos and write my journal. I’m enjoying taking time out to create a travel journal with photos from the trip so far. I’m using an Android phone to print pictures because iOS doesn’t support my little Polaroid Pogo printer. This is the last time I see that phone. Somehow I lose it and Google tells me it was last pinged in that location. It isn’t till our last day that I realise it was missing because trying to print pictures is so frustratingly complex that I give up. Anyway. It’s a great view to sit in front of. My little Canon camera records a time-lapse of the light moving over the buildings. I write with my new Fisher Space Pen and we enjoy breakfast.

Christmas morning in Central Park. It’s busy. Most places are closed on Christmas but we have cinema tickets for the new Star Wars film, Rouge One, later on today so we enjoy a good long walk around Central Park. To think that all this was based on Birkenhead. Amazing. The park is huge and I don’t think we bump into any filming locations from Die Hard 3 or Friends. We get an amazing view back to our hotel though. Somehow I don’t include it in the photos I take… *shrug* I do include the Plaza Hotel though which was in Home Alone 2.

The park is an interesting place on Christmas Morning. It’s filled with tourists taking selfies with the skyline behind them but it’s also filled with people being people, and people are odd. I have no idea why this person was in a tree.

The area around Strawberry Fields is super touristy. Weird touristy.

We find a bench to enjoy Christmas morning chocolate from our favourite independent chocolatier Chocolate Cellar. As we do a woman sort of glides past us.

Were these people happy or sad? They spent about 30 minutes sat here with the guys head in the girls lap, resting. Were they facing a similar Christmas to me? Were they local or simply tired tourists?

This woman removed a few layers and sort of sunbathed. It was warmer than expected for Christmas in NYC but not exactly summer. I don’t think this kid knew what she was doing either.

Some people just sat there taking in the sun and the sights. It was a really beautiful day. I don’t recall the last time I was somewhere on Christmas Day that wasn’t a living room. Christmas was normally visit my dad then drive to Sam’s parents down south. Our Christmas was spent mostly on the motorway and then in front of the TV. To be doing street photography in Central Park was… hard to wrap my head around. I couldn’t quite appreciate it for what it was.

Our walk takes us out the park and into Central Park West with those classic New York styled houses.

As we head back to the hotel to get ready for the cinema and our Christmas dinner we pass numerous Trump buildings. We had only been in NYC for 2 days really and the amount of Trump this and Trump that was shocking. In the UK we only know of him from the recent presidential news. Even the little skating rink cleaner had Trump written on the side. Interestingly though we only met one New Yorker who voted for Trump. The rest didn’t and the guy that did was married to a woman who voted for Hilary. Tense.

We ended the day with our movie experience which included people going right into commentary as the credits rolled. It felt different to a UK cinema we’re everyone rushes to get out unless Nick Fury is lurking at the end of the credits. Dinner was steak and it was fantastic. Don’t ask about the bill. It’s Christmas in NYC. Our walk home skims the top of Central Park where tourists are getting hot dogs and that ends Christmas Day in New York. Boxing Day is an action packed day as we get up early, very early and end our day in Brooklyn getting our first real look at the skyline of Manhattan.