Influx of millions of visitors to NYC during holidays turns everyday walkers into Scrooges

NEW YORK, N.Y. – For sharp-elbowed New Yorkers accustomed to walking where they need to go at a big-city pace, the holiday season isn’t the most wonderful time of the year.

An estimated 5 million tourists who flock to the city between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day to see the tree at Rockefeller Center, the lights of Times Square and the Empire State Building often clog the sidewalks in a slow procession that grates at locals and turns them into sidewalk Scrooges.

Their gripes are simple: Non-New Yorkers stop too often, walk too slowly, congregate in the middle of the sidewalk and generally obstruct foot traffic.

Macy’s shoe salesman Henry Vega says he’s learned to zigzag through the throngs of tourists — and even walks in the street to get around them.