Holidays 2001: Time to renew the spirit

23 November 2001

Boston never looks better than it does during the holiday season: history, lights, shopping and attractions - it all makes for a compelling show. But to what end? Anxious about terrorism and depressed about the economy, the worry is we'll all become like the frightened citizens of Marshfield, where the School Committee recently issued an edict banning school travel to Boston. Rather than going out, we'll stay snug in our homes; rather than buying gifts, we'll send an e-mail.

Boston is hoping it can change all that. This year it's going all out to bring people into the city. Looking like a postcard from a bygone era, the Frog Pond at the Boston Common is now ready for skating. A short distance away, on City Hall Plaza, the Enchanted Village has just opened its doors. Admittedly, the Village - a childhood staple for people who are now grandparents - has a creaky feel. A fanciful re-creation of a town from two centuries ago, using electromechanical technology from one century ago, it lacks the glitz of a GameCube. But no matter. This year's exhibit includes the real Santa Claus (not one of those humbug Santa's helpers) - a feature sufficient to pique the interest of even the most video-addled child. And next Sunday, the mayor and a host of dignitaries will officially kick off the season with the tree lighting on the Common.

There will be the inevitable - and one hopes, brief - speeches, performances by various musical artists and the lighting of the trees scattered throughout the Common. In addition, for the first time ever, the entire Commonwealth Avenue Mall will be lit up. Two blocks of the mall were first lit three years ago; this year, the white lights will blaze for a full mile, stretching from the Public Garden to Charlesgate. It doesn't stop there. Christmas trees, a favorite of Mayor Thomas Menino, seem to pop up in Boston wherever two roads happen to intersect. Over the next few weeks, in a kind of Yuletide purgatory, the mayor will attend over 40 tree lightings. Neighborhoods and businesses are doing their part as well. Many local shopping districts are working with the city, as part of its "Boston Unwrapped" program, to promote themselves with special events designed to bring people out of their houses and into the streets.

The city's main shopping areas - Back Bay, Downtown Crossing and Faneuil Hall - are brightly decorated and have shows and performances almost every day. It's a vast improvement over years past, when the lights were spotty, the number of special attractions was few and Boston often presented a gloomy face to the world. There is an ulterior motive to all of this, of course. The crassness of the buy- buy-buy mantra of the season may be offensive to many, but the truth is that the fate of the local economy - in fact, the national economy - is tightly tied to consumer demand.

Strong demand not only boosts businesses in the short term but also sends a powerfully upbeat signal, one that, in time, can become self-fulfilling. That's particularly true this year where the impact of a recession has been magnified by the Sept. 11 attacks. Will it work? The conventional wisdom is no. People are fearful and, more concretely, people have lost jobs. The holiday shopping season is predicted to be a bust. Or perhaps not.

In the Back Bay, home of the swishiest shops in the city, Jeb Killion, executive director of the Newbury Street League, is struck by the high level of street traffic. As reported in the Herald last week, nine new stores are opening along Newbury and Boylston Streets. Some of them, such as a three-story Ralph Lauren, are the kind of exclusive, pricey places one might not expect to see start up in a recession. Michael Kelleher, general manager of Faneuil Hall, reports large crowds as well. The Marketplace is in the midst of a major facelift, putting in new, more locally themed stores and getting rid of larger, mall-like chains such as the Disney store. The effort seems to be having an effect. Although traffic may be down on some weeknights, he says, the weekends more than make up for it.

That's the observation of the Downtown Crossing Association as well. Although it doesn't monitor each store's traffic, the anecdotal sense is that the area is filled with shoppers. All of this may be wishful thinking, a desperate effort to find silver linings during recessionary clouds. Yet, these are unique times. September's terrorist attacks were a nightmare that struck deeply into Americans' everyday spirit of confidence and optimism. When does that nightmare end? Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and other feasts of the season, all holding forth the promise of birth and new life, might just be the occasion to awake and to celebrate that spirit.