New Yorkers love a holiday tradition\u2014how many times have you been to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular?\u2014but every December, there\u2019s always\u00a0an\u00a0event that feels lab-engineered to hit every nostalgic button at once. This year, it\u2019s happening a thousand feet above Fifth Avenue, when the Empire State Building hosts screenings of two of the most beloved New York holiday movies ever made: Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and Elf.<\/p>\n
RECOMMENDED: Christmas in New York 2025: a guide to celebrating the season<\/a><\/p>\n The screenings unfold inside the Empire State Building\u2019s Observatory Experience, which already feels cinematic even without Macaulay Culkin running across midtown or Buddy the Elf sprinting through traffic. Home Alone 2 screens on December 5 and 13 at 5:45pm, while Elf plays on December 18 at 5:45pm and December 20 at 7:15pm. \u00a0<\/p>\n Tickets also include holiday treats, snacks and complimentary drinks, because no one has ever watched Elf without craving sugar. The\u00a0Empire State Building decks the halls for the season, so expect the entire experience to\u00a0boast robust holiday vibes and plenty of holiday card opps.\u00a0<\/p>\n After the credits roll,\u00a0attendees\u00a0can head outside to the 86th- and 102nd-floor decks for 360-degree winter views of the skyline, which is a pretty unbeatable way to end an evening. Consider\u00a0this your excuse to check out the Observatory Experience, which was just named NYC’s top attraction\u00a0for the fourth consecutive year\u00a0by the Tripadvisor Travelers\u2019 Choice Awards.<\/p>\n If you usually avoid midtown in December, this is one of those rare moments when the payoff\u00a0might outweigh the chaos. Unless you\u2019re afraid of heights, that is, in which case no amount of festive charm is going to help you relax at the top of a skyscraper. Still, it\u2019s a holiday tradition that doesn\u2019t involve bruises in odd places from ice-skating or long lines at department store windows, so that’s a win.<\/p>\n Attendees are\u00a0advised to arrive at least 45 minutes early to make their way through the lobby exhibits. Tickets for each screening\u00a0cost $140. To purchase tickets to a Home Alone 2\u00a0screening, click here<\/a>. To purchase tickets to an Elf screening, click here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Yorkers love a holiday tradition\u2014how many times have you been to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular?\u2014but every…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":152549,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[17797,146,85,46,92803,867],"class_list":{"0":"post-152548","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-categories-things-to-do","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-news-events-festivals","13":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152548","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152548"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152548\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}