Trains, Treats, and Jimmy Stewart
Posted in Holiday Train Show on November 23 2011, by Matt Newman
For many around the country, the upcoming weekend is a vacation in itself. The schedule usually involves such winning events as stuffing yourself silly for Thanksgiving; living off gourmet leftovers for the better part of a week; and forgetting about workaday hassles for a rare four-day weekend. (To everyone having to work on Black Friday, you have every ounce of sympathy we can muster.) The Thanksgiving Day Parade is what really brings home the nostalgia for some, and others the Sunday football. But as for me, it has to be the post-feast nap–that tryptophan is serious business.
Still, not everyone loves the idea of spending the entire holiday weekend cooped up in the house, playing host to a family that just wants to get out and do something. And that makes the coming days the perfect time to visit the Holiday Train Show, fresh off its grand opening on November 19 and picking up steam as we head into the winter months.
Yes, I did just make a “picking up steam” pun in relation to a train display, but someone had to do it.
Once you’ve gotten the holiday out of the way, we’d love to have you stop by The New York Botanical Garden to see the sights in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory; this year’s layout of tracks and replicas is undeniably spectacular. You’re welcome to bring the family for our Holiday Film Festival, too, running throughout the weekend with a varied schedule of holiday classics for kids and adults. And if you’re sitting at home right now, chin in hand while you wait for It’s a Wonderful Life to come around for its yearly cable run, I’m just letting you know that we’ll be showing it early beginning this Saturday. Not that it’s ever too early for Jimmy Stewart.
The NYBG will also be continuing its run of Gingerbread Adventures at the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, with chances for your kids to learn about the spices that go into those frosted, candy-laden creations you put together every year. They’ll even be able to make their own ground cinnamon and clove to see just how natural the ingredients are. Of course, decorating and eating their own gingerbread cookies is never a bad way to drive home the learning experience.
So if you’re looking for an excuse to get out of the house this Thanksgiving weekend, you really don’t have to search far–we’re right here in the Bronx. And at the very least, a stroll in the cool fall weather can’t hurt. You’ve got to mentally and physically prepare yourself for the next holiday smörgåsbord somehow, right?
