Christmas in New York

If shopping is not your favorite contact sport then you have no business walking along Fifth Avenue or anywhere near any department store in Manhattan these days. They are like greyhounds. Be alert or else you'll get mauled by the sea of down-to-the-wire shoppers. It is also gridlock alert day in the city. Buses crawl you probably can outwalk them. I know, I know. What am I doing in the city if I'm not shopping? I just happen to be here among the hordes of tourists for my annual holiday pilgrimage to watch the holiday displays.

The towering tree at the Rockefeller Center and the horn-blowing angels are a New York tradition. And that would not be complete without Prometheus and the crowded ice skating rink . From my front row seat at the coffee shop I was amused watching skaters take pratfalls and run into each other head on. I shouldn't laugh, I remember being traumatized by this humiliating experience many times in my younger days.

As usual the stores are competing for the best dressed windows with their holiday displays. Some have gone high tech with digital screens playing computer generated animations like Saks Fifth and Macy's. I've whittled down my favorites to a few stores with traditional decor. Bergdorf's antique looking props, Mikimoto's strand of pearly white balls, the elegant windows of the Plaza, Cartier's mainstay - the building gift-wrapped in red ribbon as if it were a giant present and Van Cleef & Arpel's garland of magnolia leaves adorning the entrance.

And who says FAO Schwarz is just for kids? I was smitten by the neatly-stacked Teddy bears and other big cuddly toys.

Walking into a crowded store in New York can be overwhelming but don't panic, there are other options. The streets are full of vendors hawking everything you can imagine. No need to trek to Chinatown for those Louboutin and Fendi knock-offs. The sellers compete for the best spots on Fifth right outside of Armani or Tiffany.

There's always something different on the street stalls each year; this time they are the earflap beanie hats and fingerless gloves. They may not be the Rolls Royce of winter knits but they sure look like the real thing and they're cheap. I think they are intended for one-time use as in disposable, or as in I won't cry if I loose them thing. They'll serve the purpose for travelers who don't want to pack their good woolens or those who've packed them but lost their luggage in transit.

"One of Andy Warhol's favorite stories about Dom Perignon was when he and his friends founded the 2000 club - a group of 20 people coming together to purchase 2000 bottles of Dom Perignon and will be drinking them together to celebrate the millennium. For them, the running joke was who would be around to drink it but sadly, Warhol wasn't there to celebrate the millennium by popping a copious amount of champagne".

Below is a liquor store display featuring Dom Perignon's exclusive bottle as a tribute to Warhol:

Christmas Fair, yes we do have them too but don't you worry. There's nothing in our Christmas Shops at Vanderbilt Hall or Bryant Park that could cause the Germans or Austrians to sweat. The Christmas markets in Germany are known to be the best in the world.

It's a pity I couldn't take a picture of the Christmas tree and the Neapolitan baroque creche at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It's another tradition - a twenty-foot blue spruce decorated with a collection of 18th century Neapolitan angels and cherubs. The groups of realistic creche figures flank the nativity scene at the base of the tree. With Christmas music playing in the background it is simply breathtaking. How I got in the museum for free is another story. That's for another post if I ever get around to it.

Last but not the least; it's often easy to forget that Central Park is a man-made wonder. The landscape behind the museum is a delightful sight for an invigorating walk especially on a crisp winter day. I roamed around for a bit soaking in all that beauty around me.

A walk in the Upper East Side occasionally means crossing paths with Toto, Coco and friends on their daily excursions through the streets of Manhattan. What a sight! And they're all perfectly behaved. With 10 to 12 dogs at once, you'd think that it's the dogs walking the walker. I heard it's a lucrative job, so if you want to earn some extra cash while on vacation in NY, here's one for you.

Off I walked towards the subways, merrily snapping away photos of beautifully decorated entrance doors to some of the most elegant brownstones along the way. The #6 train whisked me away towards Lexington Ave. where more of the holiday festivities take place - music, music, music underground. It's Christmas time in the City. For the outsider it must be dizzying but not for us.

Except for bedbugs replacing roaches, what's not to like about New York City?
New Yorkers are flexible. We give you oodles of choices in everything. We don't do things in half, remember? New York, New York.

We can be congenial and sometimes obnoxious. We are guilty of rolling our eyes and sticking out a middle finger, but little is known about how good we are at heart.

Merry Christmas.