On the coldest night of the year in New York City, most people stayed home, curled up under a blanket with Seamless and Netflix. But not my friends and me!

Instead we donned our black-tie attire (and in my case a pair of sweatpants under my dress plus a sweater, two coats, earmuffs, gloves, a scarf, and two pairs of socks!) and headed to the Ice Rink at Bryant Park for the Ice Ball.

Ice skating at Bryant Park is free and skate rental is $20 per person, so it was definitely the least expensive black-tie ball we’d ever attended!

We put on our skates.

And then hit the ice!

Photograph courtesy of the Ice Ball

Wondering what the Ice Ball is exactly?

It’s basically a guerrilla ball. We descend, en masse, onto the ice at Bryant Park Ice Rink, dressed in black-tie attire. The evening was so cold that there were few people there outside of our group, but there were still some skaters in regular clothes who were surprised to see us all dressed up!

Photograph courtesy of the Ice Ball

Photograph courtesy of the Ice Ball

Photograph courtesy of the Ice Ball

Photograph courtesy of the Ice Ball

Photograph courtesy of the Ice Ball

Once you’re on the ice, you can skate around as normal. Or, since it is a ball, many people tried their hand at waltzing on the ice, or showed off their childhood figure skating moves.

Photograph courtesy of the Ice Ball

Photograph courtesy of the Ice Ball

Some even danced the Quadrille!

It was so much fun! It really elevated the Bryant Park ice skating experience and, because it was so cold, made us feel like hardcore New Yorkers too!

To find out more information on ice skating at Bryant Park’s Ice Rink, click here. To stay in the loop for next year’s Ice Ball, join the Ice Ball’s Facebook group, here.

It’s such a cool night! (See what I did there?)

~A