Hey there readers, its that “Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” again and as we mentioned to you in last year’s posting of this nature, we celebrate Christmas Day here at the PiercingKen domicile and with that in mind I wanted to share with you some of the photography that I observed that best captured the seasonal spirit in my eyes.  The response to last year’s adventures was well received so why not run with it again.  So without any further adieu please enjoy the now annual presentation of Christmas themed images that I’ve seen while doing my normal adventuring around the city.

I’ll start with this charming little foldout snowman. I used to have a lot of paper decorations like this growing up.  Sadly most have worn to the sands of time.  Oh well. Moving along

I found this Christmas Tree in the lobby of a building that I had a meeting at and liked its look. So it’s been added to our presentation for your visual enjoyment. I have to say that some of these companies really pull out the stops when they can. This is a fair enough go at it of course.

Here’s a Nativity Scene that is rather large in scale. It’s located on the grounds of a neighboring school. To my knowledge they actually move the figures closer along to the Manger as Christmas Day approaches. I guess I will need to look into another shot before it hits us on Sunday.

I loved this giant snow globe.  It was a very clever piece of decor if you asked me.  I did leave wondering how this looked at night but did not capture a visual of that.  There was too much else to stockpile.

Periodically I visit my friends office for lunch and to get an additional sounding board to my ideas and their office had this interesting display going on in their lobby.  You might not notice it from the images but these branches were kind of silver in their tone.

They didn’t have a tree in this lobby but three displays of holiday balls.  I am sorry but that just does not read back properly but I mean no offense.  This is an interesting visual, but I would have preferred a tree myself.

When passing a local store I saw this cute little Gingerbread Man who was all decked out for the season.

I found myself near Madison Square Park and they had some nice lights around one of the fountains.  Here is that visual.

Deeper into the park there was also a nice looking Christmas Tree so I ventured down to it so you don’t have to.

The decorating committee for the offices where the site think tank resides always put out some nice holiday enhancements and here is one of them.

And now for something completely different.  This year I actually happened to be doing some running around in New Jersey and since there were some charming holiday visuals at many of my steps I decided to add them to this year’s presentation.  Feast your eyes as we begin at a house of worship that had a simple but pleasant couple of wreaths on their entrance doors.

If you found yourself in any of the rest areas on the highways of New Jersey you would have seen one of these giant cardboard snowmen.  They wish the weary traveler “Good Tidings” which I guess keeps them very politically correct.

I stopped for coffee at one of the many Dunkin Donuts establishments on my way to Atlantic City for a little nosh and they had some super cool stockings hanging up.  Check them out.  First up is a snowman.

Then a Santa Claus.

And another Santa Claus.

I mentioned I was heading to Atlantic City for a day away and now I was here but with camera in hand to see what I could find.  First up was this lovely bunch of Poinsettia.

Next up I am presenting some of the holiday trees that I noticed in the various hotel lobbies.  This first one is from the Hilton.

Here’s the one from the Tropicana and as you might notice it is made up of bunches of Poinsettia plants.  It was not easy to get a clear shot as many tourists were posing in front of it.  I made sure to help them along but this surely slowed down my often commando speed of getting the shot and mobilizing that I do.

Here we are now at Resorts.  I loved the color scheme on this tree.

This next batch was located in the Trump Taj Mahal.  There didn’t seem to be a “big” tree anywhere but instead several other smaller ones scattered around.

Apparently there was some kind of diamond presentation going on and while this is not entirely a seasonal shot, I knew that I would not see this again so I added it to the mix.

Ahhh the limits of photography sometimes.  The next you see are three chandeliers.  Each of these were showing holiday colors so red, green, white but in the photograph they all look white.  I apologize and am not sure why this one didn’t come out the way that I had planned.

These trees were aligned to the escalators.  Nicely placed but I still would have loved to see one gigantic tree.

I forget where I saw this next one, my note taking during some of my adventures is less than exemplary.  Perhaps that is a good New Year’s Resolution for me to make.

This tree we found in one of the hall passageways as my friend and I made our way to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It’s a show I try to catch every year and well, here is another tree for you to visually partake in.

I hope you readers didn’t mind my little side trip to the Garden State because I really enjoyed being able to snare all those cool Christmas tree displays. Now it was back to my more familiar stomping grounds of good ole New York City. Let’s continue shall we?  This next tree I happened by while walking a friend to the train.  Seems as though this years focus is very tree oriented but oh well.  Vive le difference.

Speaking of trees, this is a familiar NYC sight and that is the massive amounts of trees up for sale on the corners.  I always see this and know I am in New York.  Smells so nice on these corners as well.

 

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While downtown I saw from afar that the Washington Square Arch had a tree near it or under it (it was hard to tell from the distance), so I snapped a shot from my location and wandered closer.  Come with me if you have a moment.

 

OK so I was wrong, the tree is just outside of the arch at the end of University.  There was caroling going on when I walked over.  I did not have time to stop and help them sing but I think that it might have been better for them that I didn’t.

 

Lastly a shot of the tree alone.  I was not able to get the timing right for its lights for some reason.  Also felt that there should have been more of them to enjoy.

 

Now it was time to head uptown and see the big deal of Christmas trees.  You know the one I am speaking of I am sure.  This next shot is not it of course 🙂

 

 

Here she is…..the amazing Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree.  I had so many people around me when I was over here that it was not funny.  It’s wonderful to see of course but what a massive amount of crushing humanity comes to see it when its ready to be enjoyed.

 

 

Here’s one more for good measure.  I apologize for not adding any other Avenue Of The Americas displays in this years posting but I noticed that almost all the visuals were the same.  Yep, the large train, the giant holiday tree lights and the giant red balls were all the same as we showed you last year.  Even the wooden soldiers at Rockefeller Center were the same so why duplicate them here.  Maybe next year we shall see something different.

 

Closing up here is the marquee at one of my regularly attended venues as the PiercingMetal guy.  That was pretty cool of them to do.  This was the Gramercy Theatre in case you were wondering.

Speaking of shows, each year I hit the holiday extravaganza that is put on by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and since 2010 had spruced up my leather jacket with some of the decorations that I had for my Christmas use.  It’s a blast to be a bit of a Holiday Heavy Metal spectacle but that is what Rock and Roll shows are all about right?

 

Be safe everyone, Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.