I love, love, love NYC, and have done most of my visits during the month of December on business travel. However, December is also not the most affordable time of the year to visit the City that Never Sleeps. When work pays the bill, it’s one thing. When I’m paying (x3), I try to find the best deals. I knew I wanted to take the kids to NYC, and I knew I wanted them to see “Christmas” in NYC. So when did we come?

That’s right.

January.

Once I discovered that the big ol’ famous Tree doesn’t get taken down until just after the first weekend in January, I knew that would be the time to go. I recruited my sister, who had never been to NYC before, and gave the boys the trip as part of their Christmas present.

In true Us fashion, this was a whirlwind trip of 48 hours, and there was a lot to do! We first stopped at our hotel, which is the BEST location for New Year’s Eve with an amazing view of Times Square. We spent many minutes just staring out the window at the chaos below. Even better, you can book this room on Marriott points using this low-fee credit card. There are so many Marriotts in NYC that choosing one was hard; we were very happy with our decision!

After leaving our stuff in the room, we hit the streets for some food. We decided to stop in at one of the many, famous Junior’s restaurants for a “snack.”

We’d purchased New York City Pass (GoCity is another option) in advance and had a number of items on our list. First up was the Empire State building at sunset. The view was amazing, and they’ve done a good job of making it “fun” along the way, too, by sprinkling in King Kong and lots of building facts.

We had tickets to the Lion King that night so we hustled back for dinner reservations (which were a bust because, although we got seated for our reservation fine, no one ever came to take our orders). So, skipping dinner we went to the show. A lot has been written about that in other forums and I have nothing to add other than it was AMAZING and we all loved it!

On day two, we hopped on the Big Bus (part of our city pass perks) to head down to the World Trade area. I was worried that it might be too somber for my kids, but they had a great time. There were lots of people working at the top of One World who could answer all of our many questions, and we really enjoyed learning a little more about the new buildings being planned as well as the destruction that happened a decade before the kids were even born.

After a quick lunch in the financial district, we bussed it back up to the Intrepid Museum which was high on the list for my youngest, a future pilot. Both boys really enjoyed seeing the plane (the F-4 Phantom) their grandpa flew in Vietnam, and any time we see one we have to snap a picture with it.

The weather started to turn a bit, and we were cold and wet, so we moseyed back to the bus, finished out the route, and stumbled into a delicious, local place for some grub before calling it a night.

On Sunday, our last day, we tried to go to Serendipity III for their famous frozen hot chocolate, but ended up getting there an hour before they were open so instead opted for a nearby cafe. From there, we meandered over to the Rockefeller Center to do the Top of The Rock, the final item in the City Pass. Alas, the observation deck was closed due to inclement weather, so we went with plan B. Unfortunately we didn’t have a plan B, yet. My youngest was itching to ice skate but my oldest and my sister had no interest. I, too, had no interest, but it didn’t seem right to let him go alone.

THIS WAS BY FAR THE HIGHLIGHT OF THE TRIP! No, I can’t ice skate. But I didn’t fall and break a hip, which was my biggest concern. It even started to snow on us at one point and it was just so iconic being out there with great “oldies” (like, 80s/90s) music playing. It was magical. And I even had my own photographer on the sidelines to capture the memories!

We had one item left on our passes with the observation deck being closed, so we decided to hit up SKYSCAPE, which ended up being the perfect option for the less-than-desirable weather. After we unsurprisingly learned we all have about average spy skills, we grabbed some lunch and bid adieu to my sister who was heading out a few hours earlier than us. I’d promised the youngster a trip to LEGO, so we went that direction for a bit before heading to the airport ourselves.

Even though we didn’t use a lot of points for this trip, I was able to get about $40 back using TopCashback and booking our hotel directly with Marriott. I also have this AmEx business card with gives an additional 6% discount on room rates, too, making our stay at the high-end Marquis quite affordable.

All in all, this was an amazing trip and I’m so glad we got some of the holiday NYC vibes without the holiday NYC crowds, which may have been a bit overwhelming for my kids.