CHRISTMAS IN NEW YORK 2018

HO HO HO

The Christmas lights, the department store windows, the shopping, the parties, the shopping, the Santas everywhere you look and the shopping. New York sprinkles enough glitter and reindeer dust over the city to melt the most ardent Scrooge's. Even if I no longer have a little girl gripping my hand as I walk down Fifth Avenue bundled up in my warmest coat and gloves.

I can still remember how we'd ooh and aah at the animated characters in the windows at Saks and Lord & Taylor. Even without her there's still a lump in my throat as the holiday enfolds on every corner where the bells of the holiday ring loud and clear.

The luck of my schedule rewarded me with an almost two week immersion into New York's Christmas magic before I'd return to Madison for Christmas with family.

Everything in New York is combined with work for me so my first stop was to stop by the New York Design Center and pay my respects to the building that has made a lot of what we do possible..

With ABC Home right around the corner it was their windows I first took in before walking inside to look at some accessories I was on the hunt for for one of our clients.

Walking back up Broadway I caught an event at Fishs Eddy where Amy Sedaris and Todd Oldam were wiping up holiday cheer by wrapping your purchases as only Amy and Todd could do.

The line was just getting moving but it wound its way through the aisles of the store and then out the door and down the block. I'm a pretty good wrapper. I should have set up a table outside and cashed in on some creative wrapping

One of the things I like most about New York is the way it seduces you to explore at Christmas time, put on your winter boots and walk the streets and avenues like Kris Kringle admiring the all of his elves' hard work.  Nothing is more important than strolling Fifth Avenue.

When Emmy was young we'd start our journey at Lord&Taylor and work our way up to the carriage horses at the base of Central Park. Lord& Taylor's window were always a highlight with their recreations of New York's Christmas' of past.

The big disappointment was no one told me that Lord&Taylor was closing its doors. This year's windows only presented signs advertising in-store discounts and its imminent demise. Life in the city changes with each generation and more recently the changes are even more rapid; some good and some not so good.

One of the good things and one that has continued for eighty-five years is the tree in Rockefeller Center. The crowds are thick as fruitcake even in the wee hours of a week-night.

So when you're stuck in the crowd and can't move Saks is right across Fifth Avenue and their light show performed to "Carol of the Bells".

It's the one-of-a-kind experience that could even bring Santa out for a view

Now that Lord&Taylor is no longer competing for the best windows the honor has to go to Bergfdorf-Goodman.

Bergdorf's Christmas windows have always been as much about showing off their product as it has been about the spirit of the holiday.

It's a candy store for the eyes with a mixing bowl of color and a confectioner's creation of visual sweets.

Who else could wipe up a carnie's ode to cotton candy and make it regal and still sell us fashion that no one I know could wear.

If the windows aren't your thing and you'd rather be inside where it's warm and they might be serving mulled wine and hot toddies then I've got another list from you starting with drinks with Old King Cole

Then it's off to Third Avenue and the German Restaurant Rolf's where trying to get a two-thirty afternoon reservation for either a late lunch or an early dinner on a Tuesday is almost an impossibility.

The next best thing is to settle for is an Irish coffee down the block at Paddy MacGuire's

There are so many ways to make you smile and get into the holiday spirit in New York City. It really defines the holiday.

Whether you take in the annual tuba concert on a brisk Sunday afternoon on the ice rink at Rockefeller Center

Or you happen upon a one-man-band in the subway clanging out his idiosyncratic version of Jingle Bells

And you can't hit the city without taking in one of the amazing Christmas markets that dot the city with local crafts and unusual gifts.

A Christmas trip to New York wouldn't be complete without a trip to Macy's.

From inside our out the windows will bring you right back to a Miracle on 34th Street making a little girl return to believing in the impossible. We could all use a little of that this year

The magnificence of the Oculus is spectacular any time of the year but at Christmas it is a religious experience and humbling in showing what man can do.

But if religion isn't what floats your boat and your holiday celebrating drifts more toward putting on a Santa suit and getting drunk enough to kiss a reindeer's butt there's the charitable Santa Pub Crawl that defies my imagination

Or you can just take a stroll down the avenue arm and arm with someone special not worrying that a little rain or snow flurry might ruin your Manolo Blahniks

For all of you who still can't kind find the Christmas spirit then lets sentence you to no Christmas at all and a ticket to eight hours in Times Square for New Years Eve in freezing weather, surrounded by a gang of New Jersey teenagers and not a port-a-potty in sight. I'll have a pair of depends wrapped up for you under my tree

















THE GALLERY

Nenets of the Siberian Arctic, 2011
Sabatiao Salgado, photographer
Represented byYancey Richardson Gallery