Travel: New York

ROCKIN’ TREE: The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree looks great, but is snarls traffic for miles.

Last year, I spent the holidays in New York, after living there for more than a year. Seasonal decorations saturate most of Manhattan from Thanksgiving through New Year’s; even on obscure streets you can’t escape the feeling that you’re walking through a Rob Reiner film, which makes for a memorable experience.

While I longed for the familiar sights and sounds of my Texas holiday traditions, my transplant friends and I made a pact to avoid the touristy crowd-pleasers and focus on the subtle, native treats during this special time of year. We wanted to soak up the season in a quieter, more customized way.

The most hectic parts of town are around Rockefeller Center (the Christmas tree is spectacular), Times Square, and Fifth Avenue. But my crowd and I sought cozier, more intimate venues for shopping, dining, art-gazing, and bar-hopping. And through a combination of dumb luck, savvy exploration, and word of mouth, we cultivated a December that felt natural and relaxed, not forced or hurried. We ended up with great food in our bellies, reasonably warm feet, and beyond-the-obvious presents for our families back home.

SECRET SHOPPER
No matter where you spend your days, the first priority this time of year is shopping. The largest department stores (Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s), despite their historic façades, play out pretty much like Dallas mall magnets. Why bother? What we Dallasites miss is Barneys, and we never had a Bergdorf Goodman. These two boutique department stores are like compact jewel boxes of taste, with the most fantastical window displays in the world this time of year. Take your time and you’ll find an exclusive trinket for dad-maybe Longmire cuff links-or perhaps a pair of Costume National boots for yourself.

For a more affordable and exotic department-store experience, head downtown to the longtime favorite Pearl River. It’s China-town’s tour de force of imports, all of which can be had for a song-from handmade, silk-brocade jackets to porcelain tea sets to hundreds of teas and herbs. Pick up a pair of beaded slippers or an embroidered silk purse. Stocking stuffers: check.

The massive Tiffany & Co. uptown is a holiday classic, but I love the tiny and unexpected Doyle & Doyle in the hipster heaven of the Lower East Side. Elizabeth Doyle-geologist, gemologist, and designer-has an unrivaled eye for uber-unique estate jewelry. Antique jade, aquamarines in deco settings, and vintage platinum rings are carefully chosen and fairly priced. Your giftee will be grateful for your adventure streak.

Your kids will be, too, if you avoid the mega-Disney and FAO Schwartz around Times Square and head instead to Toy Tokyo in the East Village, where a flight of dark, worn stairs takes you up to a wonderland of sci-fi and cartoon gems. Floor-to-ceiling paraphernalia from Speed Racer, Yu Gi Oh!, Star Wars, and DC and Marvel comics are all here, plus a million other foreign and domestic characters to satisfy even your own subcultural needs.

A few blocks north and west is the legendary Strand Book Store-not exactly cozy, given its 8 miles of new and used books, but quiet and musty in an intellectual way. Most covers are discounted, and the store boasts the largest collection of rare books in the city.

Then there’s the decadent ABC Carpet and Home. Not a glamorous name? Never mind. Designers and homemakers have long enjoyed the exotic luxury bazaar on the ground floor: imported vases, Venetian chandeliers, hard-to-find new and estate jewelry, ornate Asian accessories. The glittering lights and rich, dense colors remind me of Christmas year round.

MEALTIME
Shopping in cold weather works up the appetite. Again, you’ll do yourself a favor to avoid visitor vacuums like Balthazar and book a table at smaller, locally beloved spaces. Because you’re on vacation, you can splurge at the quietly successful 71 Clinton Fresh Food on the Lower East Side, with its 30 seats and warming menu of lamb loin with garlic flan, rye-crusted bass, and chestnut gnocchi. Didn’t think to make reservations? Lean on the tiny bar at Bar Pitti in the Village and wait with the media types who flock nightly to the miniscule Tuscan restaurant for perfectly turned-out pasta specials and a discriminating wine list.

Or try the heat-inducing Caribbean and soul food in the easy-to-miss Chelsea treasure, Maroons. The jerk pork, fried chicken, and mac and cheese are always satisfying, and, believe it or not, Maroons has best the margaritas in town. In case you’re homesick.

La Lunchonette, in the more industrial landscape of far West Chelsea, is my favorite winter spot. Resolutely Parisian in a dim, laid-back, Rive Gauche way, its bistro fare and scruffy staff feels just right on a cold evening. Share a half carafe of Merlot with a warm goat cheese pastry salad and a steaming bowl of hearty, slow-cooked cassoulet.

For an after-dinner drink, there’s always the so-cool-they’re-chilly, fashion-victim hotel bars like the SoHo Grand and the Mercer. But I prefer the darkened, velvety rouge rooms of Serena, downstairs at the notorious Chelsea Hotel, and the quiet, sleaze-rococo bar at Gramercy Park Hotel-perfectly tranquilizing getaways from snow and wind. I recommend either venue’s dirty gin martini to get your blood back up to a nice simmer.

CULTURE CLUB
What’s a trip to New York without visiting a few museums? I love the Whitney and Guggenheim as much as the next art-lover, but holiday crowds are daunting, and my guess is you’ve not caught the relatively new Neue Galerie on Museum Mile. This excellent collection of Austrian and German expressionism is housed in a Beaux Arts limestone mansion. When you’re done gazing at the Klimts and Schieles, stop in at the museum’s Cafe Sabarsky, a tribute to the traditional Viennese coffee houses of the turn of the century.

Another unexpected (yet popular) find is the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, a 19th-century apartment building that captures the cramped, desperate conditions of the city’s early immigrant populations: Irish, Italian, Jewish. It’s a quick, eye-opening history lesson for all of us. Hey, what’s more Christmasy than the Victorians?

BETWEEN THE SHEETS
Ah, the ever-pressing question: where to stay? I’ve got a place in Brooklyn, but if I had to choose a hotel, I’d skip the biggies (the disco-pumping Hudson, even the fabulous Plaza) and head for the classic Sherry-Netherland. With only 70 vintage rooms, room service by Harry Cipriani Restaurant, and Vanderbilt antiques, it’s the ultimate in intimate luxury. And if I were in a more 2003 frame of mind, I’d go for Chambers, with its Wallpaper magazine themes: sleek-but-cozy decor and more than 500 contemporary art originals.

When you’re done tromping purposefully through Manhattan, you can lounge by the hotel’s lobby hearth, swirl your cognac, and ponder what you’d be doing if you were back in Dallas.

Photo: Courtesy of NYC & Company