On Christmas Eve in 1908, New York City Mayor George McClellan shuttered the city’s 550 movie houses, saying they had inadequate fire exits, the Times reminded readers recently. The theaters reopened a few days later.
I’m glad Mayor McClellan relented because seeing a movie on Christmas Day is one of my favorite traditions. As many of my tribesmen can tell you, the routine involves a late-afternoon movie – a 5:00 p.m. showtime feels ideal – followed by going out for Chinese food.
In Manhattan, Christmas morning may be the quietest day of the year. The hum that seems to run through the city the rest of the time ceases. It can be a great day to read, to volunteer or to walk.
In the afternoon, I would head to a theater filled with moviegoers who by then are dreaming of the wonton soup and hoisin sauce they will savor later at a restaurant packed with those of us for whom December 25 offers all the fun of a holiday without actually having to observe anything.
Hunan Park, a restaurant that used to be on Columbus Avenue between 71st and 72nd Streets but closed a few years ago, topped my list. I still can taste the restaurant’s jade chicken, which featured white meat flanked by green beans in a spicy sauce.
I can’t vouch for the food’s tie to Chinese cuisine, but my girlfriend, who’s half-Chinese, seems pretty sure the link was tenuous. I asked her how she knows Hunan Park wasn’t typical of regional Hunan cooking. “Because if you ate there, it wasn’t,” she replied.
Still, the food was terrific. So was the scene. On Christmas the place filled with Upper West Siders fresh from the AMC Loews Lincoln Square 13. The dining room’s decor looked to be from the 1980s. Signed headshots of Dan Rather and other celebrities adorned the walls near the register, which was bookended by bags of takeout. On cold days, the floor-to-ceiling windows that fronted Columbus Avenue fogged with steam from all the soup and dumplings.
I’m feeling nostalgic for Hunan Park here in South Africa, where a woman corrected me recently after I wished her happy holidays. “It’s ‘Happy Christmas’ here,” she said. “In America you soften it because you don’t want to offend anyone but here even the Muslims say ‘Happy Christmas’ and it’s fine.”
At first, I attributed her response to her being South African, until I read that two-thirds of Americans prefer to say “Merry Christmas” while 18 percent prefer “Happy Holidays,” according to a poll released Monday by Farleigh Dickenson University. Fifteen percent say they’re indifferent or would rather people not say anything. The greeting also varies by political party. Eighty-two percent of GOP’ers prefer saying “Merry Christmas” compared with 55 percent of Democrats, the survey found.
No war on Christmas here. In my reverie, I’m back at Hunan Park. If I were there I would hang my jacket on the back of my chair in the overcrowded room and look forward to being passed a pot of tea while I practically drool in anticipation of the fake Chinese food to come.