I went to the Christmas Eve festivities under the Arch. There was a small band and song sheets and caroling and some people wearing holiday gear (reindeer hats?). There was a good sized crowd. The event seemed to draw a lot of people from the community and beyond. The rain held off until just as the music ended. Afterwards, a woman with her children (maybe they missed the caroling?) sang their own carols under the Arch. Two people appeared practicing Tai Chi against the inside ‘legs’ of the Arch. There was basically no one else left at this point.
This photo was taken afterwards; it had started raining and the crowd had dispersed but there was something almost meditative and redemptive about the rain against the backdrop of the decorated tree and the magnificent Arch(now out from under its gates), amidst the close-to-deserted Washington Square Park on Christmas Eve.