Boston Bits ~ Insiders’ Tips -- our monthly journal of things Bostonian, to give Boston Your Way site visitors a sense of our city.

It is December, a wonderful time to be in Boston. The air is winter fresh. The early darkness is still a novelty and offset anyway by the electric energy all over the city. Tourists still taking in the Freedom Trail, but at a fast pace. Shoppers crowding the sidewalks of Newbury Street. Carolers and bellringers outside Quincy Market. Store windows emanating an inviting gold and white glow. Children dressed in velvet for the Nutcracker ballet. The mast of Old Ironsides draped in white lights. The mayor shaking hands at every neighborhood tree lighting ceremony in Boston, as many as five a day. Greenery and ribbon everywhere! It is the joyous holiday season in historic Boston!

So much traditional enjoyment, so little time
Boston offers a feast of holiday entertainment.
The Boston Pops with Keith Lockhart will showcase its familiar and delightful sleigh-bell sounds during the annual Holiday Pops Concert at Symphony Hall through New Year’s Eve. Of course, the biggest holiday tradition in town is Boston Ballet’s The Nutcracker. The company ripped a hole in the tradition last year when it moved the show to the Opera House from the Wang Center. It seems to have survived. It takes a lot to bring down the Nutcracker.

Langston Hughes’ song-play, Black Nativity, is celebrating its 36th Boston season, from Dec. 2 through the 18th. Ruby Dee will be a guest narrator at three performances. The show is staged at the Tremont Temple Baptist Church, the nation’s first integrated church.

The annual Christmas Revels at is still Harvard’s Sanders Theatre. This year celebrates Medieval England. Revels began in Cambridge in 1971.

Boston Gay Men’s Choir annual Christmas concert is at Jordan Hall Dec. 9, 10, and 19.

I doubt a day will go by in December without a performance of Handel’s Messiah, somewhere by some ensemble. But the signature is Handel and Haydn Society’s Performance on Dec. 4.

The holiday season is capped by First Night -- our New Year’s Eve’s citywide arts celebration. It was launched right here in Boston in 1975 and now is an urban ritual in over a 130 cities around the world. Amazing!

Santa’s not the only one who’s coming to town.
Some decidedly non-holiday stars are daring to compete with all this seasonal stuff.
U2 is at the Boston Garden on Dec. 4 and 5.
Clay Aiken is at the Orpheum on Dec. 6
Bon Jovi follow at the Garden on Dec. 9 and 10
Cyndi Lauper is back – in Lowell on Dec. 17.

Filene’s Final Christmas
When I was little, my Grandmother Vincens would send us Christmas gifts from Boston wrapped in boxes with a strange name on the top – Filene’s. I was vaguely put off by the name, which I mispronounced Filleens, and by the parochial notion that my gift was not from a “real” store. I was a parochial New York kid, who assumed all department stores had to be in Manhattan and called Altmans or Sterns, Bloomingdales or Bonwits. Maybe Korvettes. But “Filene’s”?

But then I grew up and moved to Boston. First of all, I learned to say Filenes correctly, with a long “i”. Then I learned that Boston proudly had its own distinctive Big Stores, such as Filene’s, Jordan Marsh, R.H. Stearns, Raymond’s, and Kennedy’s. Filene’s and Jordan’s were the anchors.

Bostonians were split between the two. Some shopped Filenes, others shopped Jordan’s. I chose Filene’s, although I couldn’t tell you why. Because I considered myself a high-end shopper, I would always start intentionally elsewhere, at Bloomies or Saks, sometimes Lord and Taylor. Yet I would usually end up at Filene’s, finding what I needed.

This year is Filene’s’ last Christmas. Next month, the store will close. Its parent, Federated Department Company, is eliminating the brand from its holdings. It matters not only because Filene’s has been so tightly woven into the region’s fabric, but also because it is the last store standing.

One by one, Boston’s own stores have closed down or been replaced. We don’t know yet what will replace Filene’s. Many people are wary of yet another national chain taking hold. Already Federated has replaced Jordans with Macys, and there is rumor it will do the same with Filene’s. Some people worry about the future of the building that housed the flagship store downtown. All in all, it is a sad passing of our town’s retail identity.

Insiders tip
At least Filenes Basement will not be affected by the closing. Originally part of Filene’s Department Store, it was sold and now operates as separate entity around New England. And the downtown crossing stores continue the tradition of the Automatic Markdown, conceived by founder Edward Filene in 1908. If you do go, any shopper in the Basement will be happy to explain the system. It is worth a visit.

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