Holidays in Bay Ridge

Hey Everybody, it's holiday season in Bay Ridge! At least it is according to this sign, and I'm partial to believe it because it's fucking cold outside, and I hear Christmas music everywhere. It's a magical time right now in this neighborhood formerly known as "Yellow Hook," true story. The GAP has a hilarious picture of Amy Poehler and Will Arnett all decked in red coats and a funny scarf, and even the "crap store" that seems to only sell condoms and belts has a guy behind the counter in a Santa hat! Oh what a time.

But really, Christmas (and the other holidays that occur around the same time) have never really been my bag of tricks. Our family was small when I was growing up, and still is; just me and the parents. We didn't make a big deal out of holidays because I guess the idea was that holidays were for big families that haven't seen each other in a long time or that they are really unexceptional events that create excitement by bouncing off and magnifying the perceived excitement of other people. You know, like how a little kid is really excited about Christmas, so you act excited to make it more fun for them, and the kid gets even more excited because you're so into it, then your brother or aunt or whoever sees you all amped up, and they get all in a tizzy, and you know, it kind of snowballs. Even now as I'm deconstructing why holidays weren't a big deal at my house I'm at a loss as to why people get so into them. But don't call me "cold," I just don't get it.


But here's New York, with all its Christmas cheer, and honestly, I feel like I'm starting to care. Everything just smells nice (like pine trees), and the air is crisp and has this sense of cleanliness that the city generally lacks--like the cold is freezing the dirt and making everything clearer. There's Christmas music all of the place, but not the typical standards we've all heard and gotten tired of, but new ones that are interesting and legitamatly good! There's this Christmas song I'm really into lately called "All I Need" by The Wheepies." Bars like the Crocodile Lounge even have delicious holiday beers that taste like beer and egg nog, but not in the gross way like it sounds. It's like the enormity of everything in New York translates really well into the holidays. Maybe it's because everyone in this area, all these seemingly disconnected people, seem to come together for this season to get communally excited about the holidays. And that sort of builds, and is magnified, and snowballs on a grand, grand scale; grand enough to make a guy who never really care about Christmas write a blog entry about it.