FAO Schwarz

FAO Schwarz calls itself the oldest toy store in America: Frederick August Otto Schwarz founded it in Baltimore in 1862 and brought it to New York, where it has had several homes since 1870. Its famous Fifth Avenue store closed in 2015, and in November 2018 the flagship reopened here at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a few steps from the Christmas tree. Expect giant stuffed animals and a dance-on floor piano like the one made famous by the 1988 film Big.

It is also the real store behind Home Alone 2's Duncan's Toy Chest, the dazzling shop where Kevin learns the day's profits go to a children's hospital. The movie version was filmed in Chicago, but this is the New York institution it was modeled on, so it belongs on any Home Alone day.