Christmas in New York

the long version

In Christmas in New York, Daniel Pool takes the reader on a tour of present-day New York Christmas attractions (the Rockefeller Center tree, Fifth Avenue holiday windows, the shows, the sidewalk Santas...). He also tells little-known stories about Christmas in New York (how Maurice Sendak decades ago worked on F.A.O. Schwarz window displays; why - via Guy Lombardo - "Auld Lang Syne" became the official New Year's song; and the history of that venerable Manhattanite, Santa). And, finally, there is a section on "The Ghosts of Christmas Past" - New York Christmas traditions of years ago. A marvelous mingling of the now and then, Pool's book conveys the true New York Christmas spirit.