I’d been looking forward to some carolling on the steps of St Bart’s church in Midtown with Ryan and Helen tonight so we scooted up there straight after work.

Unfortunately, either we scooted too slow or the singers were too fast because when we arrived, the choir had disbanded and were munching on festive biscuits and hot cider. And even worse than missing the carols? The hot cider containers were emptyyy.

Missing the sing-a-long was a real shame, but at least the event took me up to a new corner of the city I’d not been to before: St Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church.

St Bart’s is a gorgeous Romanesque church built in 1915 and squished between high-rise offices on Park Avenue and 51st Street. We had a wander down its long aisle, checking out the gold-covered ceiling and noting how dark the space was – the walls were solid and the few stained-glass windows were high and filled with deep blues and greens.

The church was recognized as a New York City Landmark in 1967 and today it still serves the local community with multiple weekday services and four services each Sunday. Unfortunately it only has the one Christmas carol singalong… but there’s always next year.

And who was there to lift my spirits? St. Nick!

P.s. No, I haven’t forgotten – I still owe you a blog from last Friday. Oops!