One of my favorite things about New York is that during the month of December, every five blocks or so, one encounters a Christmas Tree lot. Most of them are small, just outside bodegas–but some are bigger, like the one by the Natural History Museum. Regardless, they’re festive and they smell like pine. And frequently, have old fashioned Christmas lights strung haphazardly across the sidewalk.

There is even one outside my building–and they have old fashioned colored lights!