Holiday Spirit on Third Avenue

Economics and religious overtones generally mar an important fact about the holiday season: it's pretty! The folks at the Gramercy Park Flower Shop haven't forgotten, and the gazillion ornaments hanging from their ceiling ensure that no passerby will forget either. ("Gazillion" is, of course, an estimate, but there's literally not a single inch of free ceiling space.) Perhaps the people decorating the store just want to celebrate their good fortune at running a business that's thrived in the same location under the same family's management since 1904.

Beginning around Thanksgiving, the spirit of Christmas magically subsumes the fratmosphere of Third. If you're in the neighborhood and want to continue stoking your own holiday spirit during these dark days, head up the street to Rolf's, a Bavarian restaurant that tricks itself out each winter with close to 70,000 little white lights. It's beginning to look a lot like . . .