Are people who FaceTime while walking down the street literally insane?

The Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree (NYC’s pride and joy) is a beaming and brilliant symbol of the holiday season. Tourists and native New Yorkers alike sure do love this towering tree.

The tree will be lit daily from 5am to midnight daily after a special light-up night ceremony on Wednesday, November 29. On Christmas Day, the tree is lit for 24 hours and on New Year’s Eve it is lit from 5am to 9pm. The tree goes dark for the season at 10pm on January 13.

More than 50,000 multi-colored LED lights wrap around the branches. It's topped with a three-dimensional Swarovski star that weighs 900 pounds and sparkles in 3 million crystals. Architect Daniel Libeskind designed the stunning star in 2018.

The tree at Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park will be lit on November 28 at 6pm, officially catapulting the city into the holiday season. 

As usual, the Winter Village will be replete with a slew of other offerings as well, including ice skating, holiday shopping and top-notch food and drink options.

The Dyker Heights Christmas Lights display has definitely earned its stripes as one of the best New York attractions. What’s not to love about all that razzle-dazzle to get you in the Christmas spirit?

The Brooklyn neighborhood is home to the most over-the-top Christmas light decorations with life-size Santas, sleighs, snowmen and some houses even bump Christmas carols from loudspeakers. Crowds of all ages flock to the Kings County neighborhood to wander down the multiple blocks and avenues.

Most houses are decorated starting the weekend after Thanksgiving through early January.

You can walk through on your own, but a tour might be a little easier. Bus tours are back from A Slice of Brooklyn, Dyker Heights Christmas Lights and many more. There's even a Spanish language tour—vamos!

Jamaica, Queens' annual three-day celebration is back, running from December 1-3. Expect food vendors, an artisan holiday winter village, Christmas displays, a million-light parade, the largest Christmas tree lighting in Queens (on Friday night) as well as Santa and toy giveaways (on Saturday), live musical and dance performances and much more. The million-light Parade on Rockaway will take place on Sunday, from 130th-143re Street on Rockaway Blvd.

The event began nine years ago when the area needed a sign of hope after Hurricane Sandy. Since then, the event has continued every year to spread cheer. Activities are free to attend.

Rockefeller Center, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Bronx Zoo, the Apollo Theater and more iconic New York City landmarks have been shrunken down and sugar-fied into gingerbread re-creations. Twenty-three gingerbread houses comprise this year's "Gingerbread NYC: The Great Borough Bake-Off" at the Museum of the City of New York.

The display is on view through January 15 at the museum on the Upper East Side. The exhibition is included with general admission, which costs $20/person. Local judges awarded honors to the top-placing entries, but everyone can vote on their favorite for the People's Choice award.

GingerBread Lane—the world's largest gingerbread village—has returned to Manhattan with NYC-inspired designs. Artist Jon Lovitch has been working on the detailed gingerbread display all year long. 

Year after year, Lovitch whips up thousands of pounds of icing and bakes hundreds of pounds of gingerbread to create massive gingerbread towns. Expect to see about 1,000 gingerbread houses, stores, breweries, dance studios, pizzerias, bakeries, ice cream parlors and more at the display. Look for pink nutcrackers drawn from the decor at Essex House, an ice rink as a nod to Rockefeller Center, a few homes that resemble those in Forest Hills, Queens, and lots of other NYC-inspired details. 

Find GingerBread Lane at Chelsea Market in Manhattan through January 7 near the hallway with the twinkling lights. It'll be on view during market hours, 8am-9am daily.

Inside a venue dating back 100 years into the past, a new art show explores a question of the future: How can human creativity and artificial intelligence coexist?

ARTECHOUSE, located inside an old boiler room at Chelsea Market, is set to debut its latest digital art exhibition, “World of AI·magination,” on December 1; tickets are on sale here starting at $21/person. To create the exhibition, ARTECHOUSE Studio developed original visual elements with generative AI systems. Designers hope to inspire visitors to consider AI as a "creative associate rather than a mere tool for innovation." 

World of AI·magination centers around a 20-minute cinematic experience with six scenes. One scene, called the Library of Magical Portals, features colossal books brimming with dreams and algorithms. Another scene called Symphony of Illusions constantly morphs, while the Infinite Maze immerses visitors into multiple parallels.

Find inspiration at no cost at the Museum of Modern Art on select Fridays. UNIQLO NYC Nights offer free admission to New York City residents and extended hours on the first Friday of every month. Explore in the galleries, get creative with drop-in drawing sessions, enjoy music and see a film in the theaters. Just be sure to reserve a ticket in advance online.

This month's event is on Friday, December 1. Tickets are released on week in advance; same-day film tickets are also free for New York City residents, available on-site, after 4pm.

Beautiful, buoyant, beguiling bubbles are back at the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) in Queens. The beloved bubbles exhibit, which has been closed for five years, will return bigger, better and bubblier than ever.

The Big Bubble Experiment encourages kids of all ages to experiment and discover through the joy of playing with bubbles. That includes blowing, stretching, popping and looking closely to see what happens at each move. 

The exhibit features 10 stations, each one with different tools and methods for exploring bubble solution.

Majestic, incredible elephants are getting the spotlight in a new exhibit at The American Museum of Natural History. "The Secret World of Elephants" showcases both modern and ancient elephants, offering visitors a chance to see a full-scale model of a woolly mammoth, learn about what elephants eat, touch an elephant's tooth, listen to elephant calls and more.

The exhibition is now open in the museum’s LeFrak Family Gallery. An additional ticket is required to visit the exhibit; museum members can visit for free.