It is also where hundreds ended their Christmas Eve, with midnight mass celebrated by Timothy Cardinal Dolan.
He welcomed Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly for their final time in their current jobs and thanked them for their service to the city.
Cardinal Dolan also spoke about the mystery and the magic of the holiday.
"It's all so heavenly, so supernatural, so miraculous, isn't it?", said Dolan. "A virgin gives birth, a baby who is divine."
