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For over fifty years, I had the good fortune to visit New York in early December which resulted in the most pleasant and fulfilling of opportunities to enjoy “The City” when it was peaking for the holiday season.

New York really dresses up for Christmas.  The decorations begin appearing in mid-November and by Thanksgiving the city is completely decked out for the holidays.   Covid ended my annual trips to one of the most exciting cities in the world. I really miss New York.

There is a buzz about New York that is inspirational and uplifting.  You can enjoy it on your own financial terms.   You can find a breakfast place which is reasonable; and a corner café that specializes in tasty hamburgers.  There is a McDonald’s in the vicinity of Times Square.  A quarter-pounder there with cheese will cost you $5.79 according to latent research.

If you want to search for upper scale eating establishments and classic food emporiums, you can find anything to fit your budget, but inflation has made the most economical of places to cause sticker shock for everything these days.

I haven’t ridden the subway lately, but it was always such a treat to rumble along with the swaying cars underneath the streets of Manhattan.  The fares have always been a bargain. 

The things that cost you nothing are what I enjoy about New York.  Just walking the streets and watching people make your day.  I’ll never tire of taking a taxi over to Brooklyn and walking the Brooklyn Bridge back over to Manhattan.  Enter the bridge proper from Prospect Street and have yourself an inspirational and uplifting sojourn.

If you stay in a hotel near mid-town, you can make mini excursions to Rockefeller Center and marvel at the magnificent Christmas Tree.  To see a 100-foot Norway spruce lighted spectacularly is something visitors never tire of.  Photo ops continue non-stop, leaving you in awe as you admire this man-made spectacle which includes a piece of one of nature’s finest offerings.

The window displays at Tiffany’s, 727 Fifth Avenue, also leaves you in awe.  The whole New York scene beckons everyone with its becoming atmosphere, energy and emotional impact.   Every major city in the world has something uniquely alluring, something that is signature and fanciful.

Paris, London, Rome, Brussels, Amsterdam, Tokyo, Sydney—even Moscow.  There are museums, historical monuments, and gardens.  New York has an abundance of it all along with wondrous and vintage sports arenas.

I was fortunate to spend time in New York in the sixties when it was not so expensive and was downright friendly and agreeable.  You could take a train into the countryside, visit a friend or tour an historical enclave, such as Teddy Roosevelt’s home at Sagamore Hill which is near Oyster Bay.

Or the Thomas Edison Museum at Menlo Park, New Jersey.  Old Yankee Stadium up in the Bronx was always a favorite haunt.  You could see the Mickey Mantle Yankees in the spring and summer.  Then in the fall, you could watch the Giants, featuring Charlie Conerly and Frank Gifford.

Then there was Madison Square Gardens which always was showcasing a big-time sporting event.

A Broadway show was always a highlight. I learned that if you needed a single ticket, just wait till the curtain was rising and then bargain for a ticket and you might get it for half price, even less.  Half price today would probably cost you what it would take to buy a set of golf clubs—not cheap.

Perhaps, the most favorite thing to do in Manhattan was to go ice skating at Rockefeller Center.  After a couple of trips, I was able to get the hang of it, as they say.  You could glide around the rink amid the seasoned skaters and little kids whose laughter penetrated the crisp air.

As you make your rounds, you are accompanied by the most wonderful of music.  Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas,” and Mel Torme warming your heart with his mellow voice singing, “The Christmas Song.”  Ah, those time-honored lyrics that will resonate forever.

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,

“Jack Frost nipping at your nose,

“Yuletide carols being sung by a choir,

“And folks dressed up like Eskimos.”

New York has always had it all, even today when you have to consider taking out a small loan to spend time in Manhattan.