New York City at Christmas

Christmas decorations start going up on stores, office buildings and private homes in New York City right after Thanksgiving. The decorations are sometimes simple, sometimes elaborate. No matter, they put a smile on my face and help me get into the spirit of the season. I’m sure they do the same for others, which is why there are usually scores of people milling around.

All Dressed Up for Christmas

Each Christmas, this building on 6th Avenue near 50th Street decorates with these large red balls but every year when I see them, it feels like the first time (at least to me). A little Christmas magic, perhaps?

All Dressed Up for Christmas

All Dressed Up for Christmas

All Dressed Up for Christmas – Radio City Music Hall

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About Marcia Mayne

Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed.

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The Poinsettia

Few flowering plants say Christmas (or December) the way poinsettias do. I found this beautiful one a few weeks ago at Devon House in Kingston.

Pointsettia, maynefoto

The Jamaican poet, Claude McKay, wrote the following poem, Flame Heart, in praise of the poinsettia. It sums up some of my feelings since I returned home — there’s much that I’ve forgotten about this place but I haven’t forgotten the poinsettia. Now, in addition to the traditional red, there are white, pink, variegated ones.

Poinsettia, maynefoto

Flame Heart

So much have I forgotten in ten years,

So much in ten brief years! I have forgot

What time the purple apples come to juice,

And what month brings the shy forget-me-not.

I have forgot the special, startling season

Of the pimento’s flowering and fruiting;

What time of year the ground doves brown the fields

And fill the noonday with their curious fluting.

I have forgotten much, but still remember

The poinsettia’s red, blood-red in warm December.

I still recall the honey-fever grass,

But cannot recollect the high days when

We rooted them out of the ping-wing path

To stop the mad bees in the rabbit pen.

I often try to think in what sweet month

The languid painted ladies used to dapple

The yellow by-road mazing from the main,

Sweet with the golden threads of the rose-apple.

I have forgotten—strange—but quite remember

The poinsettia’s red, blood-red in warm December.

What weeks, what months, what time of the mild year

We cheated school to have our fling at tops?

What days our wine-thrilled bodies pulsed with joy

Feasting upon blackberries in the copse?

Oh some I know! I have embalmed the days,

Even the sacred moments when we played,

All innocent of passion, uncorrupt,

At noon and evening in the flame-heart’s shade.

We were so happy, happy, I remember,

Beneath the poinsettia’s red in warm December.

About Marcia Mayne

Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed.

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Season’s Greetings!

Happy Hanukkah!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Kwanzaa!

Merry Christmas / Feliz Navidad / Joyeux Noël!

Season’s Greetings!

Wishing you 

Health, Happiness and Peace this Holiday Season

and a Productive New Year of Blogging

About Marcia Mayne

Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed.

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Travel Photo Thursday: New York Christmas Scenes

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas in New York.

Here are a few scenes from Bryant Park. I’ve always loved Bryant Park – it’s small and intimate, and very accessible especially for people who work in midtown. People stop by during lunchtime, sit at the tables and read or take advantage of their free wifi. In the summer, there are movies. In winter, ice skating.

Skating in Bryant Park

Bryant Park Christmas Tree

The Metropolitan Museum's Christmas Tree

Last Saturday, as I traveled around the city, I couldn’t help noticing that almost every guy of a certain age (and some girls) was dressed like Santa. Cars honked and people waved when they saw them. But these Santa guys and gals weren’t going to dole out gifts, they were part of the Santas-only pub crawl – a flash mob type event that brings together people dressed as Santas, elves, etc. They go from bar to bar, drinking and generally having a good time. Great way to get “into the spirit,” isn’t it?

Going to the Santa Pub Crawl

This Santa agreed to let me take a photo but pulled on his mask just as I raised the camera.

Santa Pub Crawl

This is my submission to this week’s Budget Travelers Sandbox Travel Photo Thursday series. Be sure to check out other photo and story entries on their website!

About Marcia Mayne

Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed.

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Twelve Days Till Christmas

I just realized, today, that there are only twelve days to go before Christmas and I’m still don’t feel the Christmas “spirit.” I’d like to chalk it up to the various upheavals that have occurred in my life this past year, but I’m not so sure as I’ve heard several of my friends saying the same thing.

Normally, by now I would have baked my cakes and this weekend, I’d be getting ready to make cookies. But it’s twelve days till Christmas and nothing’s done. This morning, I picked up fruits. I’ll flash steam them in rum later. Maybe that’ll help change my mood as Christmas is my most favorite holiday of the year. While I try to get myself into the spirit of the season, here’s a look at some of my memories of Christmas.

Sorrel

In our house, Christmas was a big deal. Preparations would start early, sometimes by the end of November or early December and continue until Christmas eve. The house had to be readied, the grass cut, trees pruned and part of their trunks whitewashed. Since we didn’t have a traditional Christmas tree, we’d pick a tree — for years, it was the rice and peas plant that covered a corner of our house, like an ivy plant — and trim it and the house with lights. New curtains, sheets and bedspreads would be bought or special ones brought out and washed then put in place on Christmas eve.

Fruits that would have been soaking in rum a year or more, would be ground and folded into cakes that my cousins and I would help my mother to bake. I’ve put the recipe below.

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About Marcia Mayne

Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed.

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A New York Pre-Christmas

While the weather here in New York is slightly un-Christmassy (rain’s in the forecast today) the decorations definitely are. Here are a few Christmas photos I pulled from the Internet.

Photo from redbubble.com via the Internet

Photo from missmyriad.wordpress.com via the Internet

Photo from nytix.com via the Internet

Photo from wikipedia

About Marcia Mayne

Marcia Mayne travels a world full of books, music, art, fun people and great food. She raves about them constantly. Currently, she is journeying through Jamaica, her home country, to discover the places she missed.

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