Stacy Horn

I know a lot of people hate SantaCon, and I am not happy with some of the participants (like the people who were assholes towards the Black Lives Matter protestors last year) but I do enjoy seeing kids dressed as Santas and Elves and some creatures I couldn’t identify. I think they’re mostly adorable.

But I am home and in bed before they get really drunk.

Being nice to the police is always the way to go. I wonder if cops think this is a fun detail to pull.

So this guy on the left is firmly in the category of “what the hell is that??” And the Bumble!

I did hear, “Let’s get drunk,” and “I want to get drunk,” a lot as I walked around, I must admit. Every bar was packed.

Elves texting Santa. “Do you really need us back at the North Pole? Because we want to get drunk.”

Santas and the Chrysler Building, my favorite New York Building.

This one made me laugh. Some girl begging a bouncer about something. A familiar site from my younger days.

I kept trying to get shots which capture just how many Santas are out there. I thought maybe three shots in a row might do it.

One of the best holiday traditions for city dwellers are all the Christmas tree stands. You’re walking along the same sidewalks you zip through every day, but now they are filled with trees! That smell like pine! And they are all over the place. The concrete jungle turns green. Ish.

I went inside Tiffany’s for a walk down memory lane. I’ve worked there as Christmas help twice, many years (decades) ago. The store was empty! In December! When I worked there it would have been insane this time of year. It would have been an absolute mob scene with people crowded around every counter, especially this one, the Elsa Perretti counter. That’s where I worked both times, and the reason why it was always the most crowded was it had a section of affordable jewelry in addition to a high end selection.

It’s like the Apple Store where I went last week. Empty. I know people shop online now but still. Where are the tourists?? And, if nothing else, jewelry is so much prettier in person.

Doesn’t this shot have an Edward Hopper feel? Not just the emptiness, but that Hopper sense of loneliness and isolation.

There must be something to do when a Supreme Court justice goes off the deep end. These words of his should get him removed, there has to be some minimum standard, like racists not allowed, due to the monumental conflict of interest:

“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African-Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well,” Scalia said, “as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school … a slower-track school where they do well.”

An interesting change I’ve discovered about aging. My favorite museum to go to is the Met, for sheer variety. Whatever I’m in the mood for is there in some form or another. But it used to be there were tons of pockets that were boring to me. I’ve noticed though that over the years less is boring to me. Now, pretty much everything is of interest.

Like this thing. I didn’t write down what it is or where it came from and of course I’ve forgotten, the other side of aging. But I walked around it, fascinated. Look at that little guy climbing up the … whatever it’s called.

First, I didn’t get any closer to the tree at Rockefeller Center, because crowds.

Second, as I said before, I wasn’t blown away the windows I was passing by as I walked up Fifth Avenue. So I spent some time photographing other people looking at the windows.

I enjoyed the ones where they decorated the entire building, like Harry Winston’s. There was actually more going on than I show here. Every window going up to the roof was decorated.

Tiffany’s always does a good job. Instead of going for pizazz, they build these small, charming tableaus, which are Nutcracker-magical.

My other favorite was Bergdorf Goodman’s windows, for the color, drama and sparkle.

My last shot is at Barney’s, where they had a guy making ice sculptures right there in the window. Unfortunately I arrived when he was cleaning up after the last one and I was too impatient to wait for the next one.