Union Square
 

Can someone give me a little more details regarding Union Square, especially for the holiday season. I had heard it was a really great place, and I looked it up on the web and saw a lot of info regarding food. Is there more items there than food?? Can someone may some xmas shopping for gifts there??

Woud appreciate your input. Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why don't you just go there, see if you like it and leave if you don't?

There's a farmer's market there regularly, and then during the Xmas season there's also a crafts/gifts market.

Just asked the same question but I do know that it has many holiday items and hand made gifts, etc. Way more than just food Try it. We'll be there too.....

Just to make it clear:
The food market is all year long, 4 days a week, in the northern part of Union Square.
The Holiday Market at the southern end,with some handmade stuff, lots of import stuff (Himalayan scarves, anyone?) is only for about a month. The booths are pretty close together and it gets really crowded.

The Greenmarket is Monday, Wed, Fri, and Sat all year

The Holiday Market is now until Dec 24.

Union Square Park is also surrounded by some big chain stores (Filene's, DSW, Barnes & Noble, Whole Foods), and there are many restuarants within a very short walk.

To get a nice view of the square, go up to FIlene's and look out the windows from there.

Union Square is very lively and very busy - local(and not so local) teens hang out and skateboard on the steps at the south end of the park. Barack Obama has inspired 1,000 vendors who sell their wares in another corner, on any given day there is a protest or commercial filming or a news crew grabbing "man on the street" interviews - and it's also a transportation up with 4 bus lines and 7 subway lines converging. there is also a movie theatre with 8 screens 1 block south a great specialty bookstore Fantastic Planet accross the street, the exceedingly mediocre chocolate store/restaurant Max Brenner, and 2 blocks south is one of the best bookstores in the US - the Strand. This time of year, the Christmas market clears out the teenagers and brings in even more shoppers.
Historically Union Sq. is very rich. The largest rally in America up until the 1960's happened during the civil war in Union Square - it is thought that close to 250,000 people gathered there in April, 1861, in support of the Union cause.

The sad thing about Union Square is that it is no longer what it used to be - a vibrant center for soap box oratory. All sorts of radicals, extremists, political wackos, serious speakers, - the Hyde Park of New York. Now it's skateboarders.

Not to be confused with Danny Meyer's Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants. Which are all about food, and not neccessarily located in the Union Square area. http://www.ushgnyc.com/

I was there yesterday and thought that the holiday fair this year is better than some in the last few years. Alot of nice gifty items, but handmade?, not so much, infact I don't think I saw much at all in the way of handmade.

The entire south end of the Union Square is blocked off by the fair all the way to the edge of the sidewalk/street.

Joe speaks of time when in the 1920's and 1930's Union Square was the meeting place for leftists of all stripes.

And in the late 1880's it was the site of many union rallies hence the name. And many left wing organizations had their headquarters in and around the square.

The park was dominated by drug dealers in the 1960's and 1970's when all the department stores closed on the south end of the park closed. Then in 1987 they built the Zeckendorf Towers, the mixed-use red builing on the east side of the park. Everyone thought it was a crazy idea but it lead to the revival of the area.

And - Adu - you left out in your review of Union Square history - the presence of S Klein On The Square - the original of Century 21, Syms, Loehmann's and all discount outlets - that's where New Yorkers shopped. I can remember riding their wooden escalator with signs in several languages warning about shoplifting.

S Klein on the Square (wow, a blast from the past). I remember clearly how thrilled I was the day my dad told me I could shop for my back to school clothes at A&S <i>instead of</i> Klein's LOL!

There was also a pallid imitation of Klein's called May's on Union Square.

And after May's it wasn't much of anything until all the mall stores (Filene's, DSW, FOrever 21) moved in. Nordstroms Rack is next to invade (in the former Virgin Records space). Best Buy already took over part of the circuit city spot. Amazingly Strawberry's has hung in there.