Exclusive | NYC’s Fifth Avenue has never smelled sweeter this holiday season — here’s how the ‘homey’ transformation happened: ‘A big, big job’

Can anyone make a New York City street smell truly good?

One of the Big Apple’s hottest holiday destinations – Fifth Avenue in Midtown – is doing its best to cut through the city’s usual less-than-lovable aroma this shopping season, partnering with luxury brand NEST New York to pipe the perfumer’s beloved Holiday scent into the air along the packed thoroughfare.

Goodbye, notes of cigarette and weed, vehicle exhaust and food truck smoke — hello, hopefully at least, hints of pomegranate, mandarin orange, pine, cloves and cinnamon, with whispers of vanilla and amber.

That’s according to Toni Lakis, Creative Director and Chief Brand Officer for NEST New York — she’s in charge of the Herculean effort to transform the normally traffic-choked strip between 47th and 59th Sts. into a fresh, cheery winter wonderland.

“It’s a big, big project,” Lakis told The Post — explaining that hundreds of pounds of the pricey fragrance oil are continuously piped from inside a whole series of tree displays along the strip. A maintenance crew is dispatched throughout the season to make sure the wells never run dry, she said.

“Some people are totally surprised walking down Fifth Avenue — they’re like, ‘Where is that scent coming from?’” Lakis said, saying that the stress of pulling off such a feat is well worth the trouble. “It’s a really joyful experience, walking up and down (the streets).”

The Fifth Avenue Association, the backers of the feat, which had its first trial run in 2023, is in charge of decorating the street with numerous holiday-themed displays — this year roping in pop artist and former Estée Lauder veep Donald “Drawbertson” Robertson, to do a series of winter drawings to bring a fashionable flair to the annual display.

The al fresco effort is part of a larger NYC trend aimed at erasing unpleasant smells from public spaces — straphangers navigating the tangled subway concourse inside Grand Central Terminal have recently noticed a refreshing change in the air, thanks to a limited partnership with Bath & Body Works that will have the scent of fresh fir needles pumped into the subterranean setting throughout the holidays.

When The Post visited the Fifth Avenue installation’s opening day to sniff out a story, passersby mostly raved about the upgrade to their shopping outings — with some even leaning closer to the displays to get a festive whiff.

Victoria Meister, a mother from Buffalo, New York, who was spending the day in the city with her two young children, Natalie (7) and David (4), along with other family members, shared that the fresh aroma made her reminisce about her family’s favorite wintery activities.

“It makes me think of the winter things we do, like ice skating, coming inside and being all warm and cozy,” Meister told The Post. “It gives more of a homey feel to a big city.”

“(The smell) makes me feel happier — it makes me feel like I am excited to be here in New York for Christmas time,” Maggie Wilson, a student from Toronto, Canada, visiting Manhattan to look at schools, told The Post.

Katie Kern and her nearly 14-year-old daughter, Abby Kern, who had visited the city from South Carolina to celebrate Abby’s birthday, both noted how the fragrance in the air boosted their excitement for this time of year.

“It smells like Christmas — like you’re out in the forest and you’re grabbing your own Christmas tree that you’re going to bring in,” Katie Kern told The Post. “It’s just a warm feeling that’s lovely…It captures the spirit of the season.”

Another mother-daughter pair, Paula Byrd and Sarah Beth Byrd from Covington, Louisiana, also enjoyed the aroma — though they didn’t notice it at first.

“We were totally oblivious to that,” Paula Byrd told The Post. “We were like, ‘Those are cute little decorations!’ This is not something you would expect to see or smell in a big city.”

“It definitely makes me feel ready for Christmas,” Sarah Beth added.