New York can be a lot. But I wouldn’t write it off entirely. There are places you can go to stop and breathe. Central Park is the obvious one. And the Metropolitan Museum is HUGE and has plenty of quieter areas and galleries in it because many people will just hit the obvious ones. Then at the top of the island you have the Cloisters (an annex of the Met) that is set inside of a large park, with another larger park just north of it. Some nice views across the Hudson.
You can also move off Manhattan, and go to Brooklyn or Queens. The latter has the Museum of the Moving Image, if you’re interested in film, and the former has many things - but the two I will note are Prospect Park, and Green-Wood Cemetery. The latter particularly is huge and a very calming place.
Frankly, you could safely ignore the hugely touristy Times Square area (you’ll have seen it all on TV anyway, I’m sure), and I’d also suggest the Chelsea High Line is better avoided (nice idea in theory, but in practice I found it crammed with tourists).
I won’t lie - NYC is a lot - but it can be possible to find places to escape and recharge. I might also recommend some form of earplugs if you’re sensitive to noise; not ones that would completely cut out sounds, but something the bring it down. Because that’s the thing I remember about Manhattan - it’s so noisy almost everywhere all the time.
I’m not a fan of this time of year, and it generally fills me with malaise. So I’m just taking each day as it comes to be honest. My sister will be with us over the next week, and we have some nice food in. May go to London for New Years to see some other family, not sure yet.
Bristol to East London this year to visit family. My partners a nurse and this year he’s not working Christmas Day so we can do the visiting. My mum pulls out all the stops with the cooking which is a delight. NY will be a quiet one.
I did, spent it with my brothers and mum for the first time in what seems 8-9 years if not more.
Each of them said I’d made their Christmas which was surprisingly nice, we lost a brother earlier this year so given my own challenges, they had theirs too.
Agile rates were silly cheap through the evening and night too so when I got home allll the heaters were on
Overall a really nice day.
The community here doesn’t always see eye to eye but I’m certain if any asked another for support or a chat, the bulk would respond
and A HAPPY NEW YEAR 
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