Christmas in Old New York: Holiday History

The Bowery Boys: New York City History

This week we're highlighting an especially festive episode of the Gilded Gentleman Podcast, a show with double the holiday fun, tracing the history of Christmas and holiday celebrations over 19th-century New York City history.

Licensed New York City tour guide and speaker Jeff Dobbins joins host Carl Raymond for a look at the city’s holiday traditions dating back to the early Dutch days of New Amsterdam up to the modern innovations of the early 20th century.

You'll learn....

-- the connections between Sinterklaas and Santa Claus

-- the history of display windows, department store Santa Clauses and Christmas tree sellers

-- how Hannukah was adapted in America to help newly arriving Jewish immigrants keep hold of their traditions

-- why Santa could truly be called "a native New Yorker"

And then Carl welcomes actor John Kevin Jones who has been performing an annual one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum, now in its 11th season. Kevin discusses the origins of Dickens’ famous story and how he adapted it for the stage.