Hope everyone had a filling, drama-free Thanksgiving! And now, if you’re not rolling around in a turkey-induced malaise, or elbowing your way through a mob of frantic shoppers, there’s all the opportunity in the world to scoot your way up to the Bronx and escape that post-holiday madness! The NYBG is open both today and throughout the weekend, with a full schedule of holiday programming and late fall explorations on deck–and not a sink full of dishes or shopping cart in sight. Quite the opposite, in fact.

With the Holiday Train Show now entering its second week, crowds are still small and the weather is perfect for a trip to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. Inside, our miniature city of familiar architecture and zippy model trains is growing by the year, with fresh New York landmarks added to the collection and a few stunning wonders of the world tucked into our expanded Artist’s Studio. Paul Busse has pieced together this meticulous world over the course of more than two decades, and his New York microcosm only continues to grow with his imagination.

Outside, the Garden is still a landscape painted with the occasional fall hue, especially in the Forest. So get out there and join our expert docents for a tour of the 50-acre woodland, the only old growth, native forest remaining in the five boroughs. You might even catch a few vibrant leaf displays before autumn doffs its hat. And even if much of the color is drifting off, not all of the season’s beauty is wrapped up in the trees: heads up for the many graceful, singsong, or just plain comical flyers to be seen cruising the branches during Debbie Becker’s weekly Bird Walk.
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There are countless differences between the NYBG and your local department store. Today, the fact that there aren’t hordes of people here trampling each other for a shot at an $8 waffle iron–well, it’s a pretty compelling one. The Garden is open on this particular Black Friday, and there’s a sale on soothing frayed nerves.

Photo by Ivo M. Vermeulen