One way to experience the Retail Christmas Season is hailing a cab at the Plaza Hotel at 12:30 am and driving south on 5th Avenue, hitting the wave of green lights and thus, not having quite enough time to look both right and left to take in the lights and sights. Your ride begins passing under the gigantic glass snow-flake hanging over the the first intersection. As you continue, you experience lights in the forms of bow-wrapped buildings, falling snow and windows lit from behind with riots of color spilling out through the glass. If the night is clear and dry you can imagine you are in a toy car whizzing around the bottom of a glamorous Christmas tree skirting the wrapped packages.
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If that is too much a ride on the wild side, then walk 5th Avenue after the sun has set. Block by block you see the details in the windows of the most expensive stores. The windows created to awaken your imagination and open your pocket book. The attention to detail the designers and window dressers put into these displays, are works of art; a temporary modern museum for the folk. Outside the windows, on the street you are surrounded by shoppers dressed to the nines. These folks, whose neighborhood this is, have not waited for Christmas as they dress this way, year ’round, bespoke in spades.