12.01.2023 - By Tom Meyers, Greg Young
This week we're highlighting an especially festive episode of the Gilded Gentleman Podcast, a show with double the holiday fun, tracing the history of Christmas and holiday celebrations over 19th-century New York City history. Licensed New York City tour guide and speaker Jeff Dobbins joins host Carl Raymond for a look at the city’s holiday traditions dating back to the early Dutch days of New Amsterdam up to the modern innovations of the early 20th century. You'll learn.... -- the connections between Sinterklaas and Santa Claus -- the history of display windows, department store Santa Clauses and Christmas tree sellers -- how Hannukah was adapted in America to help newly arriving Jewish immigrants keep hold of their traditions -- why Santa could truly be called "a native New Yorker" And then Carl welcomes actor John Kevin Jones who has been performing an annual one-man adaptation of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at the Merchant’s House Museum, now in its 11th season. Kevin discusses the origins of Dickens’ famous story and how he adapted it for the stage.