On Sunday, December 11th, 2016, I experienced my first proper snow in New York City. Ed and I had popped out to get some groceries from the local market and walked out of our building to see that magic was raining down on NYC in lovely, little, fluffy white snow... and it was settling. Much to my dismay I got caught in my first NYC snow without my DSLR (I'm sure most photographers would sympathize) but I was determined to get some pics anyway as there was no way I was going to let this go undocumented because I want to remember the delight of it in years to come.
I don't know about you, but when I watch Christmas films set in New York, not only is the story fictional but the place becomes completely imagined too. As we walked to the shop, to do something as mundane as getting some essential bits and bobs, we passed Christmas trees being sold on the sidewalk and the snow had begun to settle on them. It made me think of Prancer or One Magic Christmas (beautifully classic 90s Christmas films, if you haven't seen them, you're missing out). I looked around me and I felt as though I was in the middle of my own movie moment.
You might not believe me, but I've been struggling to get in the festive mood... in New York?! I know it sounds bizarre, but hear me out! Christmas in New York is a tourist trap, some of the things I've been looking forward to the most, like the holiday displays on 5th Avenue, are super hard to get near – you can't see the windows for the tourists! Sometimes, the festivities get lost behind the commerce of the holiday and you find yourself, head down, furrowed brow, cursing that it is so busy.
But the tumbling snow took me out of all that "glass half empty" way of thinking and put me straight on the streets of New York, coated with a thin layer of crisp, icy magic. New York in the snow, on the Upper West Side, is a thing that I thought only existed on the silver screen, never before have I been so thrilled to be wrong.