Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays, New York!

Did you know? On this day in NYC, December 26, 1919, the New York Yankees purchased Babe Ruth’s contract from the Boston Red Sox for $100,000—a routine deal at the time that ended up reshaping baseball and creating the Yankees’ dynasty.

In today’s NYC Newsletter:

Pet holiday outfit contest, Randy’s Donuts Debut in NYC, MetroCard to end, NYC news this week.

Let’s get to it.

– Sofia Kurd.

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The answer to last weeks trivia: Battery Park City is officially considered Manhattan’s southernmost neighborhood by the City of New York.

NYC TRIVIA:

Which of these places is not technically part of Manhattan, despite many people assuming it is?

A) Roosevelt Island
B) Ellis Island
C) Governors Island
D) Randall’s Island

The answer will be revealed in the next newsletter.

🎄🐶Did your pet dress up this holiday season?🐶🎄

You have ONE days left to enter your pet in the NYC Newsletter holiday outfit contest!

Reply to this email with an image of your pet in their best holiday outfit.

—> Best outfit wins a $10 Chewy gift card and will be featured in a future newsletter!

• Fri–Sun – Radio City Christmas Spectacular: The Rockettes’ iconic holiday show continues through Jan 4, celebrating 100 years with new numbers and classic high kicks.

• Fri–Sun – Randy’s Donuts NYC Debut (West Village): The iconic LA doughnut shop lands on Bleecker Street with its full absurd menu—Texas-sized glazed rings, apple fritters, and Nutella-raised chaos.

• Fri–Sun – Dyker Heights Christmas Lights: Brooklyn’s most over-the-top holiday neighborhood is fully lit with massive displays.

• Fri–Sun – Great Borough Bake Off at MCNY: See the NYC skyline recreated entirely in gingerbread at the Museum of the City of New York (through Jan 19).

• Fri–Sun – Monet and Venice at the Brooklyn Museum: Over 100 works explore Monet’s time in Venice—the museum’s largest Monet show in 25 years.

• Fri–Sun – New Double-Decker Holiday Carousel (Greeley Square): NYC’s first two-level carousel spins daily from 10am–10pm through Jan 6.

• Fri–Sun – Central Perk Pop-Up (Times Square): Step inside the Friends café IRL, complete with the orange couch, themed bites, and exclusive merch.

• Fri–Sun – The Studio Museum in Harlem (Reopened): The newly expanded museum reopens with major exhibitions and rotating works from its permanent collection.

• Fri–Sun – BATSU! Live Comedy Game Show: A high-energy, chaotic comedy competition in the East Village that feels half show, half party.

• Fri–Sun – Ice Skating Around NYC: Wollman Rink, Rockefeller Center, Domino Park, Brooklyn Bridge Park, and Prospect Park are all open for peak winter skating.

A private movie theater you can book for just your group (Chelsea) — This new cinema lets you curate your own screening with restaurant-quality food and themed menus.

A tiny Brooklyn bookshop that serves soup (Bushwick) — Part bookstore, part living room, this cozy spot invites you to browse novels while eating a warm bowl of soup.

A watch repair shop that turns into a magic parlor at night (Carroll Gardens) — Behind the façade of a no-frills clock shop is an intimate, candlelit room where close-up sleight-of-hand happens inches from your seat.

City and state officially break ground on SPARC Kips Bay
Mayor Eric Adams and Governor Kathy Hochul marked the start of construction on the first-of-its-kind jobs and education campus, projected to create 15,000 jobs and generate $42B in economic impact over 30 years.

Walmart expands ecommerce footprint across New York City
Walmart is rapidly growing delivery and fulfillment operations across NYC despite remaining barred from opening physical stores, highlighting the city’s ecommerce-first retail future.

NYC libraries reveal most-checked-out books of 2025
The city released its most-borrowed library titles of the year, showing strong demand for fiction and memoirs despite the continued rise of e-books.

The MetroCard era officially ends December 31
After more than 30 years in use, the MetroCard will be fully retired at the end of 2025 as OMNY becomes the city’s primary fare system.

Winter storm watch issued with heavy snow expected statewide
State officials urged caution as a winter storm watch was issued across New York, with forecasts calling for significant snowfall.

NYC issues travel advisory ahead of holiday snow
City Emergency Management warned New Yorkers to expect difficult travel conditions Friday night into Saturday due to snow and ice.

262 Fifth Avenue skyscraper nears completion in Manhattan
A new ultra-slender residential tower at 262 Fifth Avenue is nearing completion, featuring just 26 units and designed to Passive House energy standards.

Jay Gould was one of the most powerful figures New York ever produced. He is generally considered one of the robber barons of the Gilded Age, and his unscrupulous business practices were what led him to be one of the wealthiest men of his time. In the mid-to-late 1800s, he built control over railroads, telegraph lines, and financial markets by exploiting legal gray areas, weak regulation, and fragmented ownership. Gould was not a social figure and avoided publicity, preferring quiet accumulation and strategic manipulation over public battles. He helped consolidate national rail infrastructure while simultaneously destabilizing markets through tactics that later prompted financial reform. By the time of his death in 1892, he controlled assets worth hundreds of millions of dollars and had reshaped Wall Street into a place where control of systems mattered more than reputation.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, some NYPD detectives occasionally consulted self-described psychics during stalled investigations, particularly missing-person cases. The practice was never official or widespread, but individual detectives sometimes recorded psychics’ tips or maps in case files when conventional leads ran out. The consultations produced no documented breakthroughs and quietly disappeared as forensic methods and investigative standards improved. It remains a small but real footnote from a period when New York policing was under extreme pressure and experimentation wasn’t unusual.

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