Some Random Christmas Thoughts 12/14/12

An ex-girlfriend was struggling with what to get me for Christmas so I just said “Take me to Home Depot, I want to buy a tool box and I need some things.” “OK” she said, “but are you sure that’s what you want? It doesn’t really seem like a gift.” To which I replied, “Hon, imagine someone buying you a big red metal box then filling it with shoes.” “Ahhhhh…OK”

Does anyone remember Gimble’s? For those of you who are not native New Yorkers or were too young to remember, it’s where the Manhattan Mall is now. Across the street on the corner of 32^nd and 6^th was a small counter café  known as Leo’s. Those were some of the best hot dogs in New York City. I’m serious; they were right up there with Nathan’s in Coney Island and Yankee Stadium.

One of my earliest Christmas memories was riding the subway with my mom on our way to Santaland at Macy’s, then to the enormous holiday section at Gimble’s, then to Leo’s. Two of those three places are gone, but not forgotten. How can they be? I’m a grown man and I still go to Santaland every year. It still has the same meaning for me as it did when I was a kid, except for that one year when I hit on one of his Elves. Those outfits can leave little to the imagination if not properly monitored!

I was not the happiest person during the middle of the previous decade, but I was home long enough to go to the Bronx Zoo one night during Christmas time to see the light display. I was taken there by one of the best friends I’ve ever had; someone who knew how unhappy I was at the time, and wanted to do something about it. There’s something that should be on everyone’s Christmas wish list, a friend like Y.A.

 Christmas cookies and the Albert Finney version of the Charles Dickens story…all becomes right with the world.

Greatest Store Window? Well it really depends on the year and who decides to do what. I am always partial to Macy’s, and this year’s window is a clear winner, but Sak’s Fifth Avenue has had some classics as well, particularly 1998 (don’t really know why I remember that one, but I do).  

The Vince Guaraldi Trio doing “A Charlie Brown Christmas”…all becomes right with the world.

The smell of chestnuts roasting from the vendor’s carriages, bells ringing, strangers saying Merry Christmas to each other, like two ladies said to me yesterday on 5^th Avenue, stores decorated, the light display at Grand Central Terminal, and what else? Well that’s up to you! Make some Christmas memories already!

New York is without a doubt, the greatest city in the world to spend Christmas in. No one ever wrote a song or made a movie about Christmas in Boise, Idaho or Mudville, Arkansas right?