Went and saw the movie "Elf" last night with the fam...it was a better than average Christmas movie, and Will Farrell cracks me up. But it put me in the "Christmas mood" which usually doesn't happen until the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on TV (at best) or until the weather reports that show Santa coming into DFW airspace (at worst).

I think the reason it put me in the Christmas mood was that all the scenes were shot in New York City at Christmas time.

A few years ago, I was in NYC visiting my sister about a week before Christmas...

...ice skating with my daughter in the snow at Rockefeller Center while the Today show was filming.
...watched the Teamsters putting the 2001 sign up in Times Square in preparation for New Year's Eve.
...seeing Macy's all decked out and watching tourists stand in line to take photos on a city-made stand so you could get the Rockefeller Christmas tree perfectly situated in your background.
...taking a carriage ride around Central Park fully decked out in Christmas mode, followed by a trip to FAO Schwartz at that time of year.
...seeing every storefront prepared in some creative way.
...the hustle of LaGuardia airport two days before Christmas (complete with an airline employee standing outside the queue answering questions for travellers, who responded to a guy's question about what to do about missing his connecting flight to Des Moines with, "Welcome to New York and I hope you enjoy your Christmas here, sir.")

It was one of my best Christmases ever.

No one does pre-Christmas better than New York. Go see Elf for that if for nothing else.