New York City has given the world many things like hot dogs, teddy bears, Twinkies, Broadway musicals, toilet paper, Mr. Potato Head, and black and white cookies. Believe it or not, you can add some of the most famous Christmas traditions to that list. Cozy up with some gingerbread and hot cocoa, and get ready to learn about the history of Christmas in the city more festive than the North Pole itself.
1. Early 18th century New Yorkers reinvented the Christmas season.
Example #1: John Pintard, one of the founders of the New York Historical Society, which chose St. Nicholas as their patron saint, made him the official patron saint of New York.
Example #2: Pintard’s brother-in-law, Washington Irving, wrote a hit book titled “Diedrick Knickerbocker’s History of New York.” In this book, he explained that it was Santa Claus who told the Dutch to settle on Manhattan Island. He also started the rumor that “Sinterklaes” could disappear by touching his nose and escaping through your chimney.
Example #3: Clemet Moore is credited with the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas.” His home on 21st street is where the world’s first Christmas Eve Santa sighting took place. Besides giving the reindeer their names, Moore moved Santa's trip from his feast day on December 6 to the night before Christmas -- Christmas Eve -- creating the link between Santa and JC himself.
2. The New York Sun proved that there is a Santa Claus in 1897 when an editor answered a letter from a little girl, to which he replied, "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus."
3. O. Henry wrote the classic Christmas story of sacrifice “The Gift of the Magi" in the second booth from the front in Pete's Tavern on Irving Place.
4. During the worst years of the Depression, workers building Rockefeller Center chipped in a put up a Christmas tree to celebrate the season. Eighty-six years later, this custom is still carried on with celebrities like Mariah Carey and Justin Bieber providing entertainment and beloved news anchor Al Roker.
5. Irving Berlin, a Jewish New Yorker from the Lower East Side of Manhattan, wrote the greatest Christmas song ever “White Christmas."
6. The town where one of the most acclaimed films ever made, "It’s A Wonderful Life” was set was based on the real town of Bedford, just outside of NYC. Seneca Falls can claim they are the real Bedford Falls all they want, but I thought I saw road signs in the movie pointing to Katonah and Chappaqua… both a short cab ride from Bedford.
7. And once again, New York not only proved that there is a Santa Claus, but we learned that he’s a seasonal worker at Macy’s when he is not busy with his day job on Christmas Eve in “Miracle on 34th Street.” I understand the working title was “Miracle in Des Moines,” but it didn’t quite have that special ring to it.
8. Rankin & Bass, headquartered in NYC, not only gave us our Christmas heroes like Rudolph, Frosty, and the Little Drummer Boy, but also the villainous Abdominal Snowman, Heat Mizer and the Burgermeister Meisterburger.
9. New York City television station PIX Channel 11 invented the Yule Log, the world’s first .GIF and virtual Christmas experience.
10. Lastly, modern movies like “Home Alone” and “Elf” showed both the loneliness and the magic of Christmas in New York.
Without New York City, it can be safe to say that Christmas would not be the same as it is now. And for that, I'm forever thankful.
