Tis the season to be jolly etc.

Posted by Rachael Wright at 04:36 on 26 Nov 2009

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Having said that, I can (almost) understand the aforementioned Scrooges, because even I - the grown woman who counts Santa Claus: The Movie as one of her favourite films of all time - can become fatigued by festive overkill when December finally rolls around.  But God Bless America, they've found the perfect solution: have two other holidays in the preceding months and spend each of those months concentrating on them - with only a trickle of Christmas for good measure.

October is taken up with Halloween - A Very Big Deal in New York.  For the majority of the month, pumpkins adorn stoops (and look particularly lovely in front of the West Village brownstones) as the leaves flutter about in the autumn sunshine.  It's my favourite time of year in New York, and the colours of Central Park's fall foliage are stunning.

In the days leading up to October 31st, the question ‘What are you going as?' is on everyone's lips.  You may even be privy to a man spraying himself green to complete his Incredible Hulk transformation in the middle of Broadway one afternoon, happily oblivious to people (i.e. me) taking photos of him.

After much soul-searching (costume pressure is epidemic, and ‘slutty cat' isn't really my bag), I decided to go as my favourite thing in the world and an American institution: A&W Root Beer.



Other costumes in my group of spooks included a zebra, a zombie, Cruella De Vil, one of her dalmations, a dark elf, a Japanese cartoon character, a Black Eyed Pea and an Arabic Sheikh.



The best costume I heard about, but unfortunately didn't get to see first-hand, was The Girl Who Just Broke Up With Her Boyfriend.  Apparently she was wearing a baggy T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms, and accessorised with a tub of ice cream and sporadic crying fits at strangers.  I want to be friends with this girl.

And you know how Americans decorate their houses with enough Christmas lights to leave a carbon footprint the size of Jupiter?  Check THIS out:

Halloween in the USA was everything I'd dreamt of since watching E.T.

It's now late November and, surprisingly, there are only tasteful hints of Christmas to be found in New York because they're all about the next date in the holiday calendar...  I write this from Seat 9B on a Delta Airlines flight to Indiana.  Like one of those warm and fuzzy family movies I watched as a kid (ok, I still watch them), I'm heading ‘home' to the Midwest to spend Thanksgiving with family I have there.  Admittedly, I'm not entirely sure what Thanksgiving is, but any holiday revolving around disgusting amounts of food and watching telly is fine by me.

I'll be home in England for Christmas, but not before I hit up K Mart for cinnamon-scented candles and plenty of other festive crap to take home - somehow I managed to resist the gingerbread man-shaped oven glove in Macy's yesterday.  But before I'm homeward bound, I'll be channelling Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone 2: Lost In New York and gazing at the Rockefeller Christmas Tree next week.  I even have an A.P.C. scarf, which looks just like his, for the occasion.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

THE 411

DRINK
Union Pool
Hipster HQ in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Slightly unbearable on weekends, but the taco van and black and white photo booth more than make up for it.
484 Union Avenue, Brooklyn :: www.myspace.com/unionpool

EAT
Noodle Studio
The best pad thai I've had outside of Thailand.  And super cheap too.
116 North 5th Street, Brooklyn

GO
The Guggenheim
I'm an art heathen, but this building is beautiful and totally worth visiting whether you appreciate the art, or not.  I now have a favourite period of Kandinsky's work.  Get me.
1071 5th Avenue (at 89th Street) :: Guggenheim.org

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