Thoughts On Christmas (Plus NYC)

I guess you can say that I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with the Christmas season.

When I was a kid, my parents used to decorate the house and put up a Christmas tree and even host a few Christmas parties. And when I’d wake up on Christmas morning there would magically be tons of presents from Santa underneath the Christmas tree. Though in the back of my mind I knew my parents didn’t appreciate some fat white guy in a red suit taking all of the credit for the presents that they bought.

But that’s how Americans do it. They lie to their kids and secretly resent the fat white guy taking all of the credit. I’d like to think that this why Christmas stopped in my family – because of Santa. But it’s probably because we don’t really celebrate it like most families do in the movies. Or in real life. The tree stopped. The presents stopped. The parties stopped. It all one day just stopped and I was no longer a kid anymore. I was a disturbed teenager in high school with no fat white guy to call Santa.

I tried to keep the spirit going but it’s kind of hard to do so when you’re an only child and you no longer have a mom in your life. I gave out presents. I bought a tree. I sent out Christmas cards to relatives. But the spirit just wasn’t there. The magic didn’t happen.

I’m not religious in anyway. But I am a sucker for cheesy Christmas stuff. And cheesy Christmas movies. So, in a way, I guess I just wanted life to be like a cheesy Christmas movie. That was never the case – not when you come from an Indian family who all assume you’re going to go into the medical field but end up taking on something really practical like journalism. And then doing something even more practical like hopping on an airplane and flying to Australia without a set plan.

That’s me, folks. Miss practical.

Even though I’ve been feeling like a scrooge this year, I’m still kind of a sucker for cheesy Christmas stuff. When I went to New York City last week, On Location Tours offered me a free Holiday Lights & Movie Sites tour. I’d never been to NYC during the Christmas season before, so I thought it’d be fun to see all the holiday magic.

On the tour bus we were shown clips from popular Christmas movies such as Elf and Home Alone and passed by NYC sites where scenes were filmed such as The Plaza hotel or Central Park.

I even had the opportunity to spot Will Ferrell as he was being interviewed for his new movie.

We also stopped by popular Christmas window displays such as Macy’s and Barneys.

The tour was fun and our guide was very entertaining. Then I had a good walk from our stopping point (by Macy’s Herald Square) back to my accommodation (near Central Park). It would have been a good 30-ish minute walk but I stopped to take pictures and to grab food and to just wander. So really it was about a 2-ish hour walk.

I guess I may not live life inside of a cheesy Christmas movie, but NYC sure is beautiful around Christmas time.

There you have it, Folks! How do you normally spend the holidays? Have you been to NYC during the Christmas season?