Bryant Park's Winter Village Is Open for Its 25th Season: Free Skating, 180 Holiday Shops and a Rinkside Lodge

Manhattan's surest sign that the holidays have arrived is not a tree or a parade route — it is the week the lawn at Bryant Park turns into an ice rink. The Bank of America Winter Village at Bryant Park opened on Wednesday for its 25th season, bringing back the open-air holiday market and the rink that anchors Midtown's winter, according to the opening coverage read by this desk.

The centerpiece is the Rink: 17,000 square feet of ice, open daily from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., and still the city's only free-admission skating rink — skaters who bring their own skates pay nothing to get on, with rentals available for everyone else. Around it, the Holiday Shops hosted by Urbanspace put more than 180 vendors into the park's glass kiosks — artisan gifts, home decor, jewelry and food — open daily through January 3, 2027, inside a Village season that runs through March 1, 2027.

The season also brings back the Small Business Spotlight, which gives four New York City-based entrepreneurs rent-free selling space in the market in rotation: Queens' Rolly Poly Studios through November 13, Brooklyn's Pan De Arwah from November 13 to 30, Queens' SouveDeer from December 1 to 17, and Manhattan's Lewis Cho from December 18 to January 3. The shops are a serious piece of the city's holiday economy — last season's market generated approximately $64 million in sales, according to the Village's press release.

For a first weekend, the practical advice is the local's advice: skate early or late, when the rink is emptiest; do the shops on a weekday if the gifts can wait; and remember that everything above the ice is free to walk through. The tree lighting is still weeks away — the Village does not need it to feel like December already.