NEW YORK – My 7-year-old son is convinced that only the Santa at the Macy’s here is the real one. The Santas in the other cities, he informs me, are Santa’s helpers. As far as my son is concerned, the real Santa reserves the New York gig for himself.
And who could blame him? Because when it comes to planning a purely pagan celebration – and you can’t get much more pagan than New York – everything about Christmas in New York City is the real deal.
It’s the big tree and real camels onstage at Radio City Music Hall, the windows on Fifth Avenue and the Rockettes in reindeer hats. It’s the perfect combination of hokey and spectacular, tacky and touching – like seeing the old Elvis and the young Elvis at the same time.
And contrary to what all those FAO Schwartz bag-toting shoppers
believe, all the best attractions of Christmas in New York aren’t clustered around the Rockefeller Center holiday epicenter. From the light sculptures up in the Bronx Zoo to the singing tree down at the South Street Seaport, the entire city is home to enough Noel novelties to satisfy even the most demanding Yuletide yen.
In fact, the only thing a true seeker of the real pagan celebration has to figure out is where to start.
Radio City Music Hall
People come from all over to see the Christmas Spectacular – and it shouldn’t be missed. Who can resist Santa’s videotape arrival, during which your 3-D Spectacular Specs make it look as if you’re about to be hit in the face with a giant present? Or the hundred guys in Santa suits singing “Santa’s Gonna Rock?” Or the onstage figure skaters twirling so close to the audience the orchestra members in the front have ice chips in their teeth? It’s a cultural experience.
But what most people – even plenty of New Yorkers – miss is the Stage Door Tour, a one-hour glimpse behind (and in front of) the scenes at Radio City.
Opened in 1932, Radio City Music Hall was nearly turned into a parking lot during the big- bad-architecture ’70s. It was spruced up with a $70 million face-lift in 1999 and today is an art-deco gem. And the tour hits all the highlights – the Grand Foyer, where abstract renderings of six musical instruments are woven into the carpeting (I defy even Picasso to find the harp); the private Roxy Suite, filled with original deco furniture from 1932, and the coolest deco restroom (the second mezzanine Ladies Lounge).
The tour guides know all kinds of Radio City insider lore – like the fact that nobody wants to take the Living Nativity camel for its 6 a.m. walk around Rockefeller Center because it spits. And every tour gets to ask a Rockette a question. (I have never been about to come up with anything more provocative than asking whether there’s a Rockette height requirement. There is, Rockettes must be between 5 feet, 6 inches and 5 feet, 10 1/2 inches. There goes that dream.)
The Rink
at Rockefeller Center
When I was a kid, traveling into Manhattan from the wilds of New Jersey, one wouldn’t dream of gliding out onto the rink at Rockefeller Center unless one had mastered a one-legged spin and owned one of those cute little skating skirts. These days, it’s much more democratic. Now, people in jeans, for whom the verb “glide” is as unattainable as the verb “fly,” can be found sprawled all over the ice.
This is a good change, because there are few things more thrilling than skating beneath that big tree – even if I was once compelled to glide around to a country song about a little boy who wanted to buy his dying mama a new pair of Christmas shoes so she’d look nice when she met Jesus.
Christmas in Little Italy
Like Little Italy needs an excuse to string red and green garland across Mulberry Street.
I never need a reason to go to Little Italy – at least not one more pressing than sampling the sfogliatella at Ferrara’s. However, nobody should pass up the opportunity to check out the Little Italy Christmas Parade, which takes place on Mulberry Street near Hester every Saturday in December.
The parade features Victorian carolers belting out Fa-La-Las from a float sponsored by Sorrento Cheese; a marching band composed of old guys from the neighborhood (all of whom bear more than a passing resemblance to Tony Soprano’s Uncle Junior); and baby Jesus being pushed down the street in a poinsettia-bedecked cart, while the faithful rush out to tuck dollar bills beneath his cradle. This you are not going to find anyplace else.
Bronx Zoo
Holiday Lights Nights
A visit to this underrated zoo is worth the subway ride anytime, but especially so during the Christmas season, when the already-impressive collection of wildlife is joined by 140 animals sculpted out of lights.
Dress warmly, go at night and stroll through lighted archways past chameleons that change color, enormous apes and giraffes, and howling coyotes all made from lights. This is a pretty, old-fashioned zoo, where nearly every visitor possesses a Damon Runyon accent and a Yankees cap.
New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show
Beneath the glass dome of the garden’s Victorian conservatory is 1,200 feet of large-gauge model-railroad track, over which model trains chug past hundreds of replicas of famous New York landmarks made out of plants.
I know this sounds like something only an overly enthusiastic craft person would find fascinating, but I spent close to two hours here, and the last craft I made was a potholder in the fifth grade.
This is not your usual trains- under-the-tree exhibit. There’s a replica of the Guggenheim made from giant toadstools, a copy of Saks Fifth Avenue, with door handles made from juniper berries, and a little Apollo Theater, whose marquee has been lettered with tinted radish and catalpa seeds. See what I mean?
Singing Chorus Tree
Imagine a bunch of guys in green smocks and red hats standing on a Christmas tree-shaped platform. Actually, don’t. Because the South Street Seaport’s singing chorus tree is one of those things that’s more than the sum of its parts. The bunch of guys, who are members of Big Apple Chorus, sing a cappella Christmas carols and Hanukkah songs with so much good cheer – and exquisite harmonies – that it’s impossible not to get swept up in the spirit of the season. And their finale of “New York, New York,” complete with campy hand gestures, will make you glad you made the trip downtown.
The Real Santa at Macy’s
Not only does Macy’s have the real Santa, it has five of them. Fortunately, the elves are adept at keeping the kids moving into each Santa’s individual house, so the true believers – like my son – never catch on that their Santa is a quintuplet. And the five Santas keep the line, which can be lengthy on weekends, moving.
That the line meanders through the elaborate Santaland also takes the sting out of waiting 45 minutes to speak to the big guy. Even kids with pressing requests develop a little more patience when surrounded by caroling trees, animated teddy bears and twirling lollipops the size of extra-large pizzas. There’s even a large pink Christmas tree topped with a loaf of Challah bread.
“So tell me, what did you ask for?” I say to my son, after his audience with the man in red.
“That’s between me and Santa,” he replies.
Oy.
Janis Cooke Newman is a freelance writer who lives in San Francisco.
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If you go
Radio City Music Hall, Avenue of the Americas between 50th and 51st streets. Get tickets for the Christmas Spectacular in advance at www.radiocity.com or at Ticketmaster outlets. Prices range from $38 to $125. Tickets for the Stage Door Tour can be purchased on the website. Cost is $10 to $17.
The Rink at Rockefeller Center, 50th Street between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, 212-332-7654. Open Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to midnight; Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to midnight. The cost is $15 for adults, $10 for children under 12 and $7.50 for skate rental. Skaters are admitted for two- hour sessions (more than enough time). The least-crowded times are early in the day, especially on weekdays, but the wait is never as bad as it looks.
Bronx Zoo Holiday Lights Nights, Bronx River Parkway (accessible by subway), 718-367-1010. Open nightly, 5 to 9 p.m., from about mid-December until the first week in January. $10 for adults, $7 for children under 12.
New York Botanical Garden Holiday Train Show, Bronx River Parkway at Fordham Road (on the Metro North Harlem local line), 718-817-8700. Open Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., until mid-December, and then daily 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. until after the new year. Admission to the grounds is $3 for adults, $1 for children under 12; admission to the conservatory (where the trains are) is $10 for adults, $4 for children.
South Street Seaport Singing Chorus Tree, Fulton Street between South and Water streets, 212-SEA-PORT, www.southstreetseaport.com. Free. Performances Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through Dec. 28. Call for times.
Seeing the Real Santa at Macy’s, 34th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue, 212-494-4495. Santaland is on the eighth floor; open daily from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until Christmas Eve. (Because this is the real Santa, he leaves at 5:30 p.m. Christmas Eve.) It costs nothing to sit on Santa’s lap; however, the elves do take a digital photo of your child (or you, as the case may be), which you just might feel compelled to purchase. Most photo packages are less than $20.
Department Store Windows, Here are my favorites: Saks, Fifth Avenue at 50th Street (across from Rockefeller Center); Lord & Taylor, 424 Fifth Avenue between 38th and 39th streets; and Macy’s, 34th Street between Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue. They’re wonderful anytime, but on sunny days, the glare on the windows sometimes makes it difficult to see.
More info: The first thing I do when I arrive in New York is buy the latest issue of Time Out. This opinionated magazine will tell you everything that’s happening – pagan celebration-wise or not – around town. I also think the Time Out New York City guidebook is one of the best I’ve ever used – and I’m an ex-New Yorker.
-Janis Cooke Newman
