A Holiday Under the Stars--But This One Also Offers Retail

The stars are often hard to see in New York City--unless you stop by the Time Warner Center one evening between now and January 3.
The “Holiday Under the Stars” show features 14-foot glass Moravian stars hanging from the 150-foot-high ceiling. Each star weighs approximately 1,000 pounds. (Don’t think about that part too much.)
The stars are so enormous they can easily be seen from outside. Every night at 5:00 pm (something to keep you homeward-bound commuters going) the stars are front and center in a holiday show featuring displays of light and color set to holiday music. Each number, created by a 12-piece orchestra, has its own choreographed light display; you can stand there entranced until midnight, if you wish, when the display ends for the night.
Each star can create literally millions of color combinations; the show itself is made up of 8,500 LEDs (light-emitting diodes; an electronic light source); 11,000 fiber optics; and 156 strobe lights.
Now in its fourth year, the show takes place in what is known as “The Great Room,” the enormous public space at the entrance to the Time Warner Center.
For the uninitiated, high-end shops and restaurants ranging from Coach leather goods to Dean & Deluca foods to Thomas Keller’s Per Se Restaurant inhabit the space.
So it has to be asked: Winter wonderland or thinly disguised prod to shop?
Either way, it’s certainly festive.