Things to do on a Sunday in New York

The Orchid Show at The New York Botanical Garden exhibits thousands of species of beautiful blossoming orchids, making it one of the best NYC events in February and one of the best things to do in the Bronx. NYBG’s orchid show has been running for more than two decades and has only gotten better year after year.

The Orchid Show this year will explore the connection between natural flora and the concrete jungle "in a dazzling reimagining of the Big Apple, from stoops and slice shops to the subway itself."

NYBG’s Orchid show runs from February 7 through April 26, 2026 at the New York Botanical Garden (2900 Southern Blvd, Bronx) inside the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory.

The holiday may be over but winter is very much still doing its thing in New York—and Bryant Park is leaning into it. One of the park’s most popular cold-weather diversions—iceless curling—is officially returning in February, and this time it’s dropping the reservations and price tag entirely.

After several seasons as the reservation-only Curling Café, Bryant Park is rebooting the experience as a free, first-come, first-served activity focused purely on the game. There are now no bookings, no food-and-drink minimums and no pressure to linger longer than your competitive spirit allows.

From February 6 through February 26, 2026, iceless curling lanes will pop up just east of the skating rink as part of Bank of America Winter Village. The lanes will be open daily from 11 am to 7 pm, welcoming anyone who wants to try their hand at sliding stones toward the bullseye, Olympic-level finesse not required.

For the second year in a row, floral design studio POPUPFLORIST is bringing back its citywide Love Letter Gallery, a Valentine’s-season project that invites New Yorkers to put pen to paper and say exactly how they feel about a person, a place, a memory or the city itself. The idea is simple: Write a handwritten love letter, drop it in one of the red mailboxes around town and walk away knowing no one will ever trace it back to you.

From there, the POPUPFLORIST team, led by founder Kelsie Hayes, will select 30 standout notes to serve as the heart of a one-day exhibition, where each message is paired with a custom floral installation inspired by its words. This year’s Love Letter Gallery will open to the public on February 7, with free registration for a full day of wandering, reading and quietly falling in love with strangers’ handwriting at HOST on Howard.

Don't expect Bryant Park to virtually shut down once the holidays are over—at least not this year. Post New Year's, the park is shifting into full-on winter Olympics mode as Bank of America Winter Village becomes a hub for Winter Olympics–inspired fun.

Bumper cars on ice return from January 9 through February 28, letting visitors bump, spin and slide across the rink in 10-minute sessions that feel more like a carnival ride than a traditional skate (plus you're already seated, so no embarrassing tumbles).

For a sweet, low-key and family-friendly alternative to your usual Valentine's festivities, Minuto Bauli is hosting free Romeo & Juliet-inspired puppet shows out of the bakery's Union Square location (866 Broadway) on February 7 and February 14 beginning at 3pm. In "Stories from Verona," the classic Shakespeare romance — famously set in Verona, Italy, the birthplace of Bauli — has been playfully retooled for the kiddos using hand puppets. Each performance is free with any same-day in-store purchase, such as the café’s signature Italian sweet buns.

Just in time for Valentine's Day, the CJ Hendry Flower Shop is popping up at Grand Central Terminal from February 1-15 for all of your bloom-buying needs this lovey-dovey season. Open from 10am to 6pm daily, the floral concept will fully focus on — what else? — roses (red and white, of course). All flowers are $10 but the tenth is yours free. And whether you're buying for a lover, a Galentine or simply as a self-care gift for you, don’t skip out on the free V-day flower carriers and ribbons. 

The Union Square Partnership (USP) is graciously adding some light and liveliness to the darkest time of the year with its new interactive art installation, "Patterned Behavior" by MASARY Studios, on view every evening (dusk to 10pm) from now through Tuesday, February 17. 

Located at Union Square Park’s North Plaza and Pavilion on 17th Street between Broadway and Park Avenue South, “Patterned Behavior” acts like an urban musical instrument, using architecture as a structure to “play” with sound production. Each evening’s illumination is shaped by the thousands of pedestrians that pass through Union Square every day, turning the footsteps and rhythms of passersby into a dynamic audio-visual composition with infrared sensors triggering synchronized light displays that depict how people come together in the area.

If you ever lost an afternoon chasing ghosts, the Paley Museum has your next field trip lined up. The midtown mainstay is celebrating one of gaming’s most beloved icons with a new exhibit, “45 Years of PAC-MAN,” opening Friday, January 16 and running through May 31.

The show traces how a simple yellow circle dreamed up in Japan in 1980 by designer Toru Iwatani grew into a global pop-culture heavyweight. From early arcade cabinets to living room consoles and far beyond, PAC-MAN redefined what video games could be, while still welcoming in first-time players.

At the exhibition, visitors can jump straight into the action with classic Pixel Bash arcade cabinets, competitive rounds of PAC-MAN Battle Royale Chompionship and newer titles like PAC-MAN WORLD 2 Re-PAC. There’s also a chance to tackle what the museum bills as the world’s largest PAC-MAN.

MoMA is opening a grocery store where absolutely nothing is edible—and that’s the point. Launching on January 7, 2026, MoMA Mart is a limited-time pop-up from the MoMA Design Store that turns the mundane task of grocery shopping into a visual prank. Shelves are stocked not with snacks, but with objects that look like food at first glance and then reveal themselves as lamps, clocks, candles, stools and sculptural décor.

MoMA Mart will run from January 7 through March 29 at both MoMA Design Store locations—SoHo (81 Spring Street) and Midtown (44 West 53rd Street)—and will also be featured online, where people will be able to shop for the various items. Consider it grocery shopping for people who already have snacks—and could use a tomato lamp instead.

The New York Transit Museum is giving the time-honored subway swipe a proper sendoff with a new exhibit called "FAREwell, MetroCard" (see what they did there?), opening on December 17 in Brooklyn.

The exhibit covers the full journey of the little yellow card that changed how the city moved. When the item launched in 1994, the goal was simple: retire the cumbersome token for something more fitting for the modern era. The show explores how that idea grew from clunky magnetic stripe prototypes into the systemwide rollout that reshaped the daily commute. Through early pilot brochures, SubTalk ads and photos of the first activated turnstiles, you'll realize how much work went into convincing riders to trust the new system.