Oh the wonderful memories I have of Christmas time in New York City! Unfortunately these are very old memories, since I am ancient now, and all the fun things happened when I was a child. I have mentioned various times before that my mother had some issues in her life, but she was always very good to me and gave me some good memories from my younger days concerning the holiday season and fun trips to Manhattan. It was always bitterly cold when we would take the Q13 bus to Flushing Queens where we would take the 7 train into the city. Flushing used to be quite an active hub, where the subway lines ended and numerous bus routes originated. Always crowded and kind of hyper, but I remember the awesome smell of the Pizza places that sold steaming hot and delightfully greasy slices of pizza on wax paper squares from counters that opened right onto the sidewalk. Pizza never looked or smelled as good as it did on those days!
We would take the subway at sunset so we could enjoy the splendor of Rockefeller Center's ginormous tree at night and watch the ice skaters make the scene look like a postcard. Of course, the Macy's windows were a favorite destination too, with lights, colors, snow and all sorts of Christmas folks and animals , moving and twinkling with joyous music playing all the while. And we also went to Radio City Music Hall to see the Rockettes do their Christmas Spectacular. I always felt that that place was magical as a child, and I remember one December my mother and I stood on a line for hours so we could get in to see the new movie release "Mary Poppins"! I told you I was ancient!
The sounds , sights, and smells of that time are engraved in my memory and my dream is to be able to go back there one Christmas with my whole family. We would stay in Manhattan and be able to walk to or take trains to all the fun places I remembered, buy some roasting chestnuts, comment that they taste weird and drink frothy whipped hot cocoa with whipped cream to stay warm. I am thankful to have some happy times to reflect on during my young years and to know that I was loved very dearly by my mom!
If you can go, then go for heaven's sake and enjoy the season of the birth of Jesus in a place that decks it all out for the holidays!
It is always great to have fond memories of holidays and time spent with family. Hope your upcoming holiday is filled with happiness and tradition. We have been trying to holiday things each year to instill tradition in our little one, I hope she will look back fondly too.
ReplyDeleteGreat memories - I have shared some of them - my grandmother took me to the Xmas shows at Radio City - love those Rockettes and the animals that came on stage for the holiday extravaganza! The big tree - smell of roasting chestnuts, and taking the train in - all fond memories.................
ReplyDeleteWhat an exciting time of year to think back to all those wonderful memories....and to make some great new ones!
ReplyDeleteYour photo's bring back some lovely memories of when I visited Aunt in 2003 - thanks for sharing x Jo cornish-beachbrummie.blogspot.com
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