The Chrysler Building, the Empire State, 30 Rock, and other skyscrapers adorn the skyline. At street level the solitude of the Public Library, and the glitz of Fifth Avenue. And underground, Grand Central Terminal ushers commuters in and out of the city. Take a walk amongst the sights of Midtown East.

There's no place like NYC for the holidays! From iconic window displays to synchronized light and sound shows, this walk will guide you through the history of a festive city tradition that dates back to the 1870s.

Saks Fifth Avenue is one of the grand flagship department stores that turned Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan into the city’s and the country’s premier shopping street.

Hampton Shops Building ARCHITECT: Rouse & Goldstone DATE: 1915 STYLE: Neo-Gothic Designed in the neo-Gothic or Perpendicular Gothic style, it has an 11-story tripartite facade clad with grey terracotta resembling granite. This distinctive style was chosen because not only did it complement the St. Patrick’s Cathedral complex, which the building faces, but it also evoked the kinds of traditional-style furniture that Hampton Shops sold.

Saks Fifth Avenue ARCHITECT: Starrett & Van Vleck DATE: 1922-24 STYLE: Neo-Renaissance Saks Fifth Avenue is one of the grand flagship department stores that turned Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan into the city’s and the country’s premier shopping street. Designed by department store specialists Starrett & Van Vleck and built in 1922-24, Saks had to conform both to the conservative impulse to harmonize with the architectural character of Fifth Avenue, as promulgated by the Fifth Avenue Association, and to the modern requirements of an up-to-the-minute luxury department store, as well as to the new zoning law of New York which mandated upper floors to be progressively set back from the lot-line. The resulting design was a handsome, but restrained and dignified neo-Renaissance style retail palazzo, with its administrative offices occupying the less visible setback stories above the seventh floor.

Saks Fifth Avenue, ca. 1953. Designed by architects Ernest Alan Van Vleck and Goldwin Starrett, the Saks Fifth Avenue building was the first major department store in NYC to be designated a landmark. When Saks opened in the building 1924, an article in The New York Times said the store was ''the most modern and up-to- date building of its kind in the world,'' and that it marked ''the opening of a new shopping centre on upper Fifth Avenue.'' Saks Fifth Avenue was also one of the first flagship stores to conduct unveiling events for window displays. Using hydraulic lifts, the festive decorations were constructed in a sub-basement out of public view. Once ready, the displays were raised to street-level overnight for a dramatic unveiling.