BY TARA BURKE

This year we wanted to attend our church in the city for Christmas Eve service. In turn, we thought we’d make a little staycation out of it so we could spend a night in Manhattan and see all of this year’s Christmas festivities. Originally, the plan was just to go for the day and get Christmas Eve dinner in the city, but while I was looking up restaurants I came upon an article discussing how low hotel prices got during the holiday weekend. We immediately switched gears and started researching boutique hotels.

We fell upon The Roger in our search and loved its look. The lobby and rooms have an old NYC glamour to them that just felt so classic compared to big modern chain hotels.

We booked directly through the hotel with the help of their accommodating staff. We’d recommend booking direct with whatever hotel you are looking at, since they usually will give you the best price you’ve seen online and you can make personal requests. Our only request was to be placed in a room that was on one of the higher floors so we could get a better view of the city. To our surprise, we must have been upgraded because we had a penthouse suite! The room was beautiful and spacious, and even had a large terrace! When we stood against the terrace and looked up, there was the Empire State building donning its red and green Christmas colors right above our heads!

After settling into our room we headed down to the lobby for their complimentary weekday wine hour. We had spent the whole day walking 55 blocks checking out the Christmas markets and store fronts prior to checking in, so it was especially nice to relax in their beautiful lobby with a glass of wine.

As it got dark we headed out again to see all the 5th Ave. window displays (Lord & Taylor is always our favorite) and see the Rockefeller Christmas Tree. The Roger is an excellent location if you like to walk places. For us it was walkable to Rockefeller Center, the Flatiron District, Union Square and Herald Square. They also have coffee and the New York Times waiting for you in the lobby every morning for a truly New York wake up.