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How the holidays in New York City have changed over the last 100 years

Holiday shopping 1946
Holiday shopping at Macy’s in 1946. AP PhotoCarl Nesensohn

  • There’s something magical about the holiday season in New York City.

  • Symbols of the holidays in the city, like the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, have been around for decades.

  • Other traditions, such as holiday shopping, look a little different today.

  • The coronavirus pandemic has shaken up some traditions even more, and many major events are going virtual this year.

  • Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The Big Apple usually draws millions of people from around the world to partake in holiday traditions like ice skating in Central Park and browsing iconic department stores’ decorative windows with hot cocoa in-hand.

While some features of the holidays in the city have stayed the same over the past 100 years, many others have changed. This year we’ll see even more changes to the city’s beloved traditions due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

Here’s what the

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Recreation
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  • November 28, 2020
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how it changed Walter Tevis’ 1983 novel, which is not a true story.

Left, the cover of The Queen’s Gambit by Walter Tevis. Right, Anya Taylor-Joy as Beth Harmon. In the corner, a tearaway logo reads “Page to Screen.”
Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Amazon and Netflix.

Walter Tevis’ 1983 novel The Queen’s Gambit is on the New York Times best-seller list, thanks to what Netflix calls its “biggest limited scripted series ever.” But what will fans of the blockbuster show find when they crack open the book that inspired it over Thanksgiving weekend?

Many of the lines of dialogue familiar to viewers are straight out of Tevis’ story, and the general plot—chess prodigy overcomes addiction to rise to the top of her field—remains the same. But along with skipping those loooooong passages describing chess moves, writer and director Scott Frank makes a few changes to Tevis’ novel.

Below, we’ve rounded up the most significant differences. Needless to say, spoilers follow.

The Battle of the Sexes

Aaron Bady argued recently in the Los Angeles Review of Books that one of biggest pleasures of Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit is

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Hotel
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  • November 26, 2020
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Universal Credit application process just changed and it’s actually good news this time

The DWP has changed the rules for people applying for Universal Credit online, in an effort to make things simpler and quicker.

People with an existing Government Gateway account can now confirm their identity digitally.

The change comes as 600,000 people have signed up for the six-in-one benefit since April.

The DWP said the new service speeds up the application proces by letting people enter their details and find out almost instantly if their identity has been confirmed before moving on to the next stage in the application process.

Minister for Welfare Delivery Will Quince said:“Confirm Your Identity lets people set up a benefit claim without ever needing to leave their home – which is especially important during the ongoing pandemic.

“Claiming benefits shouldn’t be challenging and we continue to make improvements to the system to make the process as simple as possible.”

The DWP said it means you don’t
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Travel
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  • November 21, 2020
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Changed Travel Plans on the Menu This Thanksgiving

Turkey Day will look different this year for many Americans because of the pervasive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Three in 5 U.S. adults who had Thanksgiving travel plans (60%) say these plans have been affected by the pandemic, according to a new NerdWallet survey. Just 12% say their plans haven’t been impacted, and another 29% aren’t sure if they will be. And while some are still planning to travel, many are forgoing seeing loved ones in person this year.

In a NerdWallet survey of more than 2,000 Americans conducted online by The Harris Poll, we asked about how the pandemic is impacting 2020 Thanksgiving travel plans, including transportation and lodging.

Key findings

  • COVID-19 affects plans to see loved ones: Among Americans who say their Thanksgiving travel plans have been impacted by the pandemic, 42% say they usually travel with or visit friends and family, but this year they won’t.

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Travel
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  • November 17, 2020
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Geoffrey Palmer, Judi Dench and a relationship that changed TV

Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench in As Time Goes By; the pair became firm friends outside the set too - Alamy
Geoffrey Palmer and Judi Dench in As Time Goes By; the pair became firm friends outside the set too – Alamy

In Tomorrow Never Dies, Pierce Brosnan’s second Bond adventure, Geoffrey Palmer cameoed as Admiral Roebuck. But Palmer wasn’t there to run the bally show, as stuffy commanders had by that point been doing in Bond films for 35 years – he was there for Dame Judi Dench’s M to get the better of him. (Dench was redressing the gender imbalance; one film prior, she’d branded 007 a “sexist, misogynist dinosaur”.)

Palmer, who died last week aged 93, was perfect fodder for Dench, with his bloodhound chops permanently hung somewhere between “beleaguered” and “surprised”. His casting was also a none-too-sly nod to Palmer and Dench’s pairing in the romantic BBC sitcom, As Time Goes By. It was an unlikely crossover: James Bond and the kind of cosy, living-room sitcom that

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Adventure
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  • November 9, 2020
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How the coronavirus pandemic changed the 2020 campaign

Yet the campaign, like American life, has forged ahead in unprecedented ways amid the threat of the coronavirus, which has dangerously surged again in recent weeks. In April, thousands of people across Wisconsin risked their health to cast primary ballots in the early weeks of the pandemic — a preview of the long lines to come even in the final days before the general election.

In early summer, President Trump, 74, resumed his massive campaign rallies against the advice of health experts and sent Republican organizers back into the field, downplaying the risks of covid-19 even after he became infected. Democrats, meanwhile, moved most of their campaigning into the virtual world — hosting organizing events and rallies on Zoom.

When Biden eventually returned to in-person campaigning, his schedule was limited, the guest list sparse. The 77-year-old candidate, who once stood close enough to touch foreheads with voters, now stood far

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Travel
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  • October 31, 2020
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What changed and what stayed the same from Roald Dahl’s book

ANNE HATHAWAY as Grand High Witch in Warner Bros. Pictures' fantasy adventure "THE WITCHES," a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures
Anne Hathaway as Grand High Witch in “The Witches.” (Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.)

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for the latest adaptation of Roald Dahl’s novel “The Witches,” currently streaming on HBO Max, including a discussion of the ending. For less spoiler-y content, consider this review and our feature on updating Dahl’s story for contemporary audiences.

When the original film adaptation of “The Witches” premiered in 1990, author Roald Dahl was famously unhappy with the changes to his novel’s ending. The film, produced by Jim Henson and directed by Nicolas Roeg, altered the conclusion of the 1983 children’s book, which leaves the hero boy stuck as a mouse after his transformation by the Grand High Witch.

In Roeg’s version, he becomes human again, reversing Dahl’s notably dark ending. Robert Zemeckis’ new adaptation, released last week on HBO Max, makes several key changes to the story and setting, but maintains

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Hotel
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  • October 31, 2020
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We asked how the pandemic changed your money habits. Here’s what you said

CNN Business asked readers how the pandemic has changed their spending and saving habits. Here’s what some of them had to say.

Paul Grim described himself and his wife, Michelle, as “more savers than spenders” before the pandemic struck.

Then Grim was laid off from his IT job. His wife, who is still working, has reduced her 401(k) contributions to free up some cash.

“We have been dipping into our emergency savings to cover our bills where unemployment falls short,” he said.

Paul Grim, who was laid off this summer, said he and his wife feel lucky that she still has a job. They plan to build an even larger emergency fund for future setbacks.

The couple, who live in upstate New York with their dog, Barley, are eating at home, minimizing impulse purchases and postponing pricey things like dental work.

“Once I am working again we intend to increase the amount of our emergency fund to ensure we are even more well-prepared for any potential future financial emergency, no matter how severe,” Grim said.

Jim Stearns of Alaska runs big events for

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Hotel
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  • October 28, 2020
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The Designers Group CEO on how COVID-19 has changed interior design

Blima Ehrentreu is the founder and CEO of The Designers Group, an interior design firm with offices in Toronto, New York, and Miami. She spoke to Doreen Lorenzo for Designing Women, a series of interviews with brilliant women in the design industry.

Doreen Lorenzo: Have you always been interested in design? What led you down this path?

Blima Ehrentreu: I always had a passion to create, improve, and perfect. As a kid, I wanted to be involved in anything visual. After graduating with a master’s degree in interior architecture and design, I started working at an architectural firm. That’s where I learned how to work with drawings and plans, and the technical side of design. In 2009, I founded The Designers Group with another designer—and what started as a two-woman firm in Toronto has since blossomed into an international firm with locations in Toronto, New York, and Miami. At TDG,

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Hotel
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  • October 20, 2020
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As Mipcom Pivots Online, 10 Sales Chiefs Tell Us How Coronavirus Has Changed TV Distribution Forever

EXCLUSIVE: As dawn breaks on October 12, TV executives from around the world should be rising to the lapping shore of the French Riviera. Instead, for most, they will be greeted by the four walls of their bedrooms. This is the reality of 2020, a year in which coronavirus has robbed an intensely sociable industry of its ability to come together.

Mipcom is among the grandest of these calendar fixtures. A truly global gathering, Cannes is the setting for a jamboree of TV trading, a place where people converge to inject some heat into the market. But this year, the heat will be the glow of our collective computer screens, as Mipcom goes online for the first time ever.

Deadline has spoken to 10 distribution chiefs in Europe and America for their view on virtual Mipcom, as well as their reflections on how Covid-19 has reshaped television sales. The … Read More

Adventure
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  • October 12, 2020