Here’s How The TWA Hotel Is Decorated For Its First Holiday Season

by SharonKurheg

After 4 years of anticipating its opening in May 2019, this was the first holiday season that the TWA Hotel has been open. We had a 2-night stay in mid-December, so we were able to see everything the hotel had to offer to ring in the holidays.

The best word to describe the hotel’s holiday decor is “understated.” There were some decorations, but not a whole bunch. But frankly, I totally get that. Joe and I got married at Walt Disney World, and we purposely downplayed the whole “Disney” thing. Our cake topper was a white chocolate Cinderella Castle. Our favors were metallic Christmas ornaments with small Mickey heads on them. We had Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse visit for the most expensive 20 minutes we ever spent in our lives. And that was about it. We figured we were already AT Disney and we didn’t want it to be overkill. So I totally “got it” when the TWA Hotel didn’t do too much; the hotel is already beautifully themed…if they do too much Christmas and Hanukkah, it’s just a theme within a theme and it just wouldn’t be right.

But speaking of “doing it right,” I think they did. Take a look…
Their Christmas tree matched the classic red and white colors that are all over the property.
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Not surprisingly, the decorations on the tree were mainly the glass ornaments they sold in the gift shop.
There was a huge sprig of mistletoe attached to the clock in the approximate center of the lobby.
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The background music in the TWA Hotel is usually pop and soul hits from the early-to-mid 1960s; Elvis, Sinatra, The Beach Boys, Gladys Knight & The Pips, The Beatles, etc. That continued for the holidays, but they added time-specific Christmas songs into the mix. So maybe every 5th song or so, you’d hear Stevie Wonders’ “Someday At Christmas,” the Beach Boys’ “Little St. Nick,” the Jackson 5’s, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” etc.
The (usually themed to the 1960s) departures and arrivals board would “flip” every few minutes and several of the photos would be Christmas or Hanukkah themed.
Not really for the holiday season as much as the winter season, they have an ice skating rink next to their iconic “Connie” plane (the one that’s been converted to a lounge/bar). The custom Runway Rink (made with, as they say on their website, “good old frozen NYC tap water”) will operate seven days a week through the end of February.

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The 56′ x 44′ rink didn’t seem to be super popular, but that could have because of the weather – it was miserably overcast and sometimes drizzling or even rainy the whole time we were in NY. We never saw more than a couple of people skating.

Outside the hotel, they installed cascading red and white lights on a bunch of trees.

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And that was really about it in terms of decorations. It was scarce, but what was there was done well – classic, classy and not too overpowering, so it didn’t overtake the planned circa 1962 theming of the hotel. I give it two thumbs up.

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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary

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