00:00Today, The Independent is raving below freezing temperatures to visit some of the most iconic locations in a few beloved Christmas classics.
00:081992's Home Alone 2, Lost in New York, 2003's Elf, and 1947's Miracle on 34th Street.
00:15But the question is, can you guess which movie the locations are from?
00:24This is the textile building at 295 Fifth Avenue.
00:27In the movie Elf, Buddy briefly works at Gimbel's, a department store chain that in reality was closed in the 1980s.
00:33But Macy's did not want to feature the scene where Buddy fights and exposes a fake Santa at their store,
00:39so Jon Favreau, the director, took this building and CGI'd some graphics over it to create Gimbel's.
00:50The Macy's at Herald Square is where Kris Kringle begins to spread the magic of Christmas,
00:54telling parents where they can buy toys for their children if the store doesn't have them.
00:59Originally, it was frowned upon by the staff, but they quickly realized that it actually made the store more popular.
01:09After walking from the North Pole, Buddy the Elf goes to find his biological father,
01:13who works right there in the Empire State Building.
01:16He is quickly thrown out by security because they think he is crazy,
01:19which I'm guessing is exactly what would happen to me if I tried to do that now.
01:27The Bethesda Fountain features a thrilling chase sequence between Kevin McAllister
01:32and the Wet Bandits, the villains from the first Home Alone.
01:35Kevin runs through this tunnel here, and he's able to escape by hiding in a horse-drawn carriage,
01:40while the Bandits assume that he will be lost in Central Park forever.
01:44Do they even know Kevin McAllister at all?
01:46You better not shout, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why.
01:57You might not be able to recognize this place right away because in the movie that it is featured in,
02:02there is a massive parade with giant balloons and floats.
02:07In the beginning of Miracle on 34th Street, Kris Kringle finds the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade,
02:11and he sees the hired Santa Claus that closes out the parade is drunk.
02:15He takes on the job himself, he nails it, and it gets him the official Santa job at the Macy's at Herald Square.
02:22It's beginning to look a lot like...
02:24It's very cold outside, so I'm making Rian warmer with my comedy and songs.
02:31The Belvedere Castle serves as an ominous backdrop for the confrontation between the Central Park Rangers and Santa Claus
02:43after he crashes his sleigh in Central Park because no one is believing in Santa anymore.
02:48The Central Park Rangers notoriously have been on the naughty list, and therefore, they hate Santa Claus.
02:53So, stay on the nice list.
03:02The Pine Bank Arch, the place where Buddy the Elf and his half-brother Michael are ambushed by teenagers
03:07after Buddy picks Michael up from school.
03:10A snowball fight ensues. It's brutal. It's bloody.
03:12The Woolman ice skating rink is featured in Home Alone 2, where Harry and Mar are plotting their next scheme,
03:24which is to steal from a toy store on Christmas Eve, which is just so evil. It's so cruel.
03:29The Plaza Hotel is featured in Home Alone 2, where Kevin McAllister commits identity fraud to book a hotel room
03:41and use his dad's credit card to blow all of his money on room service.
03:45He is my personal hero.
03:46The historic concert venue, Carnegie Hall, here behind me, is showcased in one of the most tender scenes of Home Alone 2.
03:59After Kevin McAllister befriends a pigeon lady in Central Park, she brings him to the top of the building.
04:04They share a surprisingly sweet and relatable heart-to-heart about friendship and community.
04:10It might have just warmed my Grinch heart.
04:15Not really.
04:16Perhaps the most iconic location on this list, the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree,
04:26featured in two of our three Christmas movies.
04:29At the end of Home Alone 2, Kevin McAllister, having defeated the bandage for the second time,
04:35finds himself in front of the Christmas tree, impossibly empty, by the way.
04:39You will never see it as empty as it is in the Home Alone movies.
04:42Don't buy into that.
04:43In Elf, Jovi takes Buddy to see the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree
04:47because he's been pointing Christmas trees out the entire time they've been out on their date.
04:51They also go ice skating at the iconic ice skating rink, which I'm not going to do
04:55because I would fall down and hurt myself.
04:59Thank you so much for joining us today on this excursion, on this odyssey.
05:03How many of the locations were you able to guess from the films?
05:06Stay warm, and happy holidays to you.
05:09From The Independent, this is Zach Palomo signing off.
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