Christmas Windows: ABC Home & Carpet and the Winter Garden

The one annual must-see Christmas display among the high-end stores here in the city is at the exotic junk bazaar ABC Home & Carpet. Outside of the holidays, they're basically your crazy neighbor who covers his front lawn with every conceivable piece of kitschy crap they sell at the home and garden store; and during the holidays, they take just about everything out of the Christmas closet — even stuff that has nothing to do with the holidays — and put it on display one way or another. They're basically this guy — impressive to look at, but you wouldn't want to live next door to it.

ABC Home & Carpet has a pretty subdued Christmas display this year, all things considered.

Although I can't help but wonder whether this is a little sacrilegious.

I'm also annually impressed by the Christmas lights set up downtown at the World Financial Center, even though the palm trees don't really get me in the holiday mood. The lights are hanging like rain down from the ceiling. During the day, the Christmas lights don't exactly complement the whole Crystal Palace design of the Winter Garden, but it's beautiful at night without being tacky or obnoxious or rubbing Christmas in your face.