Recently, Lewis and I vacationed in Spain, and the capital was decorated for Christmas. The enthusiasm was admirable: lights were strung across all types of roads: wide boulevards and narrow medieval alleys. Artificial Christmas trees beautified many plazas and public squares. The illumination of everything made Madrid very cheery for the season! We applaud the city's government for well-spent tax dollars that gave its citizens something to be proud of.
We also spent time in Valencia, and that city's government installed bright decorations and hung lights from big and small streets.
Returning to New York City (the wealthiest city in America) was a huge disappointment, as usual. NYC cost the most to live in, yet its greedy/cheap government squanders revenue and doesn't do anything festive for the holidays. Here are images of the main streets in Manhattan.
Here are images of one of the city's most expensive hotels: The Peninsula. Compared to the buildings in Spain, it is meagerly decorated. It didn't do much; it merely tinted its spotlights to be red and green.
The "decorations" over its entrance look cheap--as if they were bought at a Discount Store: inflatable figures and small trees.
As I took the photographs, I overheard a tourist complain that it looked "tacky" and ugly. I agreed.
*To see more of NYC at Christmas, please use this link: https://halfwindsorfullthrottle.blogspot.com/2018/11/how-to-spend-christmas.html
After being in Spain's decorative festivity (and Germany's during the prior year), NYC's overpriced barrenness is the equivalent of Scrooge.
Merry Christmas from the USA.
