A Year In New York

As a Californian used to spending lots of time with trees, especially pine trees, New York City can be a barren place. These East Coast maples and elms have lost all their leaves. If it’s a pine smell you want, hail a taxi that has a tree-shaped air freshener dangling from the rear-view mirror.

Or you could have Christmas! Since late November, New York has imported trees by the thousands, along with their subsidiaries, wreaths and boughs. They are imported from the snowy reaches of Canada and sold on street corners swaddled in plastic twine. Small ones twinkle from the windows of apartment buildings and giant gilded ones are installed at every institution with grand ambitions: hotels, museums, parks, corporate headquarters, Central Park West apartment co-ops. For them, an admirable Christmas tree is as necessary as plumbing or an alarm system.

Here are some pictures of the best I’ve seen. Merry Christmas!

Bloomberg Tower, 58th & Lexington

The Arch at Washington Square Park

The parking lot behind Bed Bath & Beyond, 61st Street

Flower Arrangement, Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Christmas Tree at Rockefeller Center, as viewed from the M3 Bus

Wreath on Park Avenue

The Arsenal in Central Park

Wintergreen Salad on 88th Street