Christmas, Hanukkah on Long Island and New York City through the years

Visitors admire Rockefeller Center's trumpeting angels on Dec. 11, 1983. The Christmas tree glows in the background.

The Lebeau children of Port Jefferson Station play with dreidels on Nov. 26, 1975. They are, from left, Adena, 6, Joelle, 3, and Alisa, 9. The dreidel game is a popular Hanukkah tradition.

Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst is decorated for the holidays on Dec. 27, 1991.

Bart Conte, of Hempstead, a clerk at the Hempstead post office, is shown holding an armful of mail on Dec. 16,1952.

Clerk Stephen Jackson, of Hempstead, is virtually surrounded by Christmas packages as he piles up some more at the Hempstead Parcel Post Building on Mill Road in this Dec. 14,1959 photo.

Louis Sichling of Massapequa Park, a clerk at the post office on Peninsula Boulevard in Hempstead, is nearly boxed in by packages being mailed for the holidays on Dec.15,1961.

Bags of mail lay on a loading platform before being loaded on trucks for transfer from the Hicksville post office on Dec. 13,1966.

Parishioners of the Church of God portray the Nativity scene with live animals in front of the church on 247 Smithtown Blvd., Nesconset, in this Dec. 22,1974 photo.

The home of Samuel Klimczuk on 806 Jerusalem Ave., Uniondale, shines bright with festive Christmas lights on Dec. 13, 1976.

A Hanukkah reminder in the window of the Mother Nature Shop on Main Street in Huntington on Dec. 14,1978.

Dottie Chute, 15, of Garden City kneels in front of the Nativity scene at the Cathedral of the Incarnation in Garden City on a special bench provided for prayer in this Dec. 23, 1978 photo.

Long Islanders bundled up and jammed the streets of Hempstead to get their holiday shopping done on Nov. 28, 1953.

A Nov. 28, 1978 photo taken at Stiehlers Garden Center in Oceanside of a Fraser Fir, one type of Christmas tree that is ready for planting.

Menorah display at Walt Whitman Mall in Huntington on Dec. 7,1981.

A group of people attend ceremonies for the Smithtown Christmas tree lighting and a new menorah dedication on Dec. 7, 1982.

The windmill on Route 27 in East Hampton is aglow with holiday lights adorning its vanes on Dec. 10,1982.

Adam Havlicek, a kindergartner at Lido Elementary School in Lido Beach, demonstrates how to spin a traditional Hanukkah dreidel in this 1987 photo. His class is learning about religious holidays.

Elizabeth Cox, 5, watches Jason Harris, 5, light the Hanukkah menorah candles in this Nov. 12, 1987 photo. Kindergarten children at the Lido Elementary School in Lido Beach were learning about religious holidays.

Elizabeth Leahy tastes potato latkes along with classmates Michael Dodes (left), Matthew Spitaleri (center), and Kacey Boyle (right) as Lido Elementary School kindergarten teacher Mrs. Evelyn Grapek, passes out the traditional Hanukkah treat on Nov. 12,1987.

Alexandra Caputo, then 3, and Julie Caputo, then 5, look at the work that residents of Nassau Avenue in Plainview did to help set up a Christmas display at the home of Gary Gitlin in 1988.

Stony Brook Univerity student Rosario Tantillo plays Santa Claus to children in the pediatric ward at Stony Brook University Hospital on Dec. 7,1988. Tantillo brings a teddy bear to Jason Helmett, 3, of Middle Island.

Alan Yudenfreund, left, preparing to end his Santa shift and Mike Pope, beginning his shift, change in a small storage closet at Roosevelt Field Shopping Mall on Dec. 16, 1988.

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, played by Rick McClancy, and Frosty the Snowman, played by James McClenanan, have a fun time with Tom Connelly and his two daughters, Megan, 5, and Shannon, 3, in this 1989 photo taken in Seaford.

Kindergarteners at Solomon Schechter Day School in Commack watch the first candle of a menorah being lit to celebrate the beginning of the Hanukkah on Dec. 22,1989.

This 84-foot Norway spruce, in upright position is in the first stage of readying to be displayed for Christmas at the EAB Plaza in Uniondale on Nov. 7,1990.

Patrick and Fran Hennessy of Nesconset celebrate their heritage every Christmas with potato croquettes and manicotti in this1990 photo.

People wearing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer noses await the reindeer parade at Radio City Music Hall in this 1990 photo.

Andrew Barbieri, his father Carmine and brother Joseph in front of the Christmas display at their Deer Park home in 1990.

Shopper Elena Saliture of Oyster Bay pushes her cart down an aisle of Christmas decorations at the Caldor in Melville in 1991.

Yisroel Perl of Long Beach holds the "Torch of Freedom" prior to the lighting Nassau County's 18-foot menorah in 1991.Yisroel's father, Rabbi Anchelle Perl, prepares to light the menorah in the background. According to Rabbi Perl, the Torch of Freedom symbolizes the shamash, the center candle and the first to be lit of the menorah. The Torch was passed among the group of people who attended the ceremony.

Melanie Gianfalla, of Holbrook, and Eric Wagner, of Ronkonkoma, kiss in front of the Christmas tree at EAB Plaza in Uniondale in 1991.

Jazzman Van Beakle, then 5, waits for the Three Kings Day parade on Fifth Avenue near 104th Street in East Harlem in 1991.

Steve Anglin of Babylon, dressed as Santa Claus, boards a Babylon-bound LIRR train on Dec. 16, 1965. Anglin was director of special services for the railroad and welcomed commuters to a Christmas party aboard the train.

James Devlin, then 8, hugs Frosty the Snowman in the yard of his Elmont home in 1991.

A giant Santa Claus looms over the lawn at the EAB Plaza in Uniondale during the annual Christmas tree lighting on Dec. 7, 1991.

Salesman Todd Troutman of Stony Brook shows customer Lenore McGugh, of West Islip, an array of Sony Walkman personal cassette players and AM-FM radios at the P.C. Richard store on Route 109 in West Babylon on Dec. 13,1991.

Shopper browse in the Christmas decorations department at Bed, Bath, & Beyond in New York City on Nov. 6, 1992.

Eric Dieterich, then 13, saved his allowance to buy the Christmas decorations for his East Northport home in 1992, and his friend Sean Kelly, then 13, helped him decorate.

Caroline MacArthur of Glen Cove, seems to have the same look as the reproduction of Auguste Rodin's bronze statue "The Thinker" that sits on a jewelry case at The Museum Co. store at the Walt Whitman Mall on Nov. 28,1992.

Dave Lyons, of North Hempstead, trims an evergreen with Christmas lights in 1992.

Children yell out for Santa at the Police Athletic League Christmas party in 1992 at the Ramada Hotel in Penn Station in Manhattan.

A snowman, played by Carol Marino, who can't be feeling at all frosty in that suit, hugs Diana Montalvo, then 5, at the Sea Grill in Rockefeller Center in this 1992 photo.

Ed Dart (right), takes a photo of members of the DiMarco family of Lake Ronkonkoma who had just bought their tree at Dart Christmas Tree Farm in Southold on Dec. 3, 1992.

Mother Hope Koski (left), of St. Lawrence of Canterbury Church in Dix Hills, and parishioners, Gary LaFemina, Ruth Sanderson, Elaine Carril, Laura Kennedy, and Barbara Perry, carrying wreaths for the "greening" of the church three days before Christmas in 1992.

Rabbi Gershon Schwartz talks about the menorah to kindergartners and preschool children at the South Baldwin Jewish Center on Grand Ave., Baldwin on Dec. 16, 1992.

Roberta Kushner and her daughter, Julie, 9, of Westbury, light a menorah candle for the first night of Hanukkah on Dec. 19, 1992.

Katie Prince, 10, of Valley Stream, can't see Santa (played by Larry Kerr), but she can talk to him and feel his beard--a real one. Kate is among 15 blind and vision-impaired children who visited Santa at Roosevelt Field mall on Dec. 19, 1992.

Tom and Doreen Barrett of Bellport seek the approval of their daughter Alexandra, 3, for their Christmas tree on Dec. 19, 1992, at the Woodside Garden Center in North Patchogue.

Kim and Jim Attwooll rigged their 45-foot sailboat, "Fair Felonia," with lights for the holiday season at Seymour's Marina on Bayview Ave., Northport two days before Christmas in 1992.

Angela Grillo, Daniel Antonelli and John Passero, first-graders at Commack Road Elementary School in Islip, wrap gifts for homeless kids in 1993. Many fellow classmates also helped.

Marines from the Marine Corps Reserve Center in Garden City, Gunnery Sgt. Len Golden (left), Cpl. Mark Bible Davis (in the van), Staff Sgt. Steven Bordas, and Sgt. Pedro Rapalo assisted by Alyssa Nightingale of Nightingale & Partners, and Jesse Brundige, 8, from Laurel Hollow, load donated toys that were later given to kids. Jesse helped collect the toys in 1993.

Holiday shoppers crowding Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove on Dec. 13,1992. They came out in droves after several days of severe weather kept shoppers away.

Registered Nurse Stacey Roberts, packs boxes full of toys wrapped by employees of the North Shore University Hospital.The two-day wrapping marathon that concluded Dec. 14, 1993, is run by volunteers and the gifts are delivered in two truckloads to families on the North and South shores.

John Theissen, of Wantagh, engulfed by the toys he planned to donate for Christmas to needy families in this Dec. 22, 1993 photo.