By Dirk Scheepers

Christmas in New York is a massive affair. No expenses are spared to decorate each apartment and shop with lights and Christmas trees. On almost every street corner there is a person ringing bells to collect money for the Salvation Army. Ice skating rinks are set up in Central Park and one Saturday – just before Christmas – the streets are full of thousands of people dressed as Santa Claus and taking part in SantaCon. This is where they drink-walk from pub to pub for charity.

Sachs on 5^th Avenue’s entire façade is covered in lights and this is accompanied by Christmas music. In North America people save their leave days for the summer holidays from June to August, with the result that most people are at work up until 24 December. Christmas Day is a holiday but there is no such thing as Boxing Day, so people are back at work on 26 December.

By this time of the year it is also bitterly cold and everyone struggles through the snow to buy gifts or buy a cup of coffee, even if it is just to hold the cup and thaw your hands. Yes, the snow is magical when it first starts to fall and covers everything in a white blanket, but it doesn’t last long. The snow in New York quickly turns into a grey-black wet mess because of all the traffic and pollution. When the mercury drops below zero, the soft snow turns into rock-hard ice that you have to scrape to get it off your car’s windshield.

As it befits Americans, a big Christmas meal is prepared in most households. The festivities actually start a month before Christmas, with Thanksgiving, and sometimes I feel as if you just eat for an entire month. It starts with turkey (baked in the oven or deep fried), jumps over to mashed potatoes, stumbles further into corn bread and then ends in apple pie. Then the entire process is repeated, but with other dishes such as corn pudding, green bean casserole and mac and cheese with a pecan nut pie as dessert. When the festive season is over, people roll into the gyms in January to try to work off this excessiveness.

There is however an undoubted feeling of excitement and camaraderie during Christmas time in New York. The rest of the year the obnoxious New Yorkers are rude and in a hurry but when Frank Sinatra’s Christmas album plays everywhere, it almost feels as if the place becomes a tad friendlier. The stupid tourists that block the escalators or stand on the sidewalks for selfies, are politely requested to stand aside. Any other time of the year you will be cussed that the ocean can’t wash you clean…

Also read Out and about with Dirk Scheepers