The Trees of New York

Here’s some trees I found in New York, decorated for the holidays.

Bryant Park’s tree …

… and its star top

The Bryant Park tree across the ice skating rink

The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree from the side …

… and from the front. This was taken across Fifth Avenue, since there was no room on the sidewalk opposite

The Met Life Building’s tree

The Historical Society’s tree in Tarrytown

 

Christmas at the Historical Society

Better late than never.

I helped a wee bit in the decorating of the Historical Society for the holidays. I added a few ornaments to the tree, and that was about it. Others put up the tree and the decorations. There was a harp concert and some refreshments to celebrate the season earlier in the month, but I did not attend. (I had way too much homework to do.)

This year’s theme is, no surprise, toys and dolls of yesteryear. The school marm was “dolled-up” in a new outfit and made the mistress of the house where she looked on with her daughter at the beautifully-decorated tree. There were no lights on the tree, however; there are never any lights put on the tree. Technically, candles should be put on the tree, but there is no way that you could convince anyone in the place to actually risk burning down the building for that. The tree was decorated with ornaments from the 19th and 20th centuries. There were lights put up in other rooms.

 

The rooms of the first floor were filled with different objects that were once cherished by children. The displays were a bit heavy on dolls, but there were some interesting toys, like the Noah’s Ark that was near the tree. There are still arks being sold to children, but it was nice to see a toy from decades gone by that some child or children played with and enjoyed. (It was well-worn, so it was obvious that children had played with it.)

There were a variety of dolls, many being Asian, which surprised me. Some of the dolls were strange-looking, and I had to wonder if they didn’t scare the children instead of amusing them. What follows is some of the dolls still on display in the Historical Society.