Vasmay Lounge

Where: Lower East Side, 269 East Houston Street

Why: Vasmay can be a loud and angry place … if you’re lucky. During the holidays the bartenders sometimes wear flirty Santa’s helper’s outfits with cleavage that pours out to the same volume as the liquor in your strong beverage. This is not a bar to go be depressed at -- certainly not when the happy hour is buybacks for any paid drink. And the bartenders are chatty so enjoy the company while it’s available.

Holly Jolly Soundtrack: Achieve the height of irony by playing Darlene Love’s song “Christmas” in between all the rockabilly and death metal tunes.



Mars Bar

Old men and broke punks drink side by side chatting about a wide range of topics -- from stingy addicts to social security blues. But on the loneliest night of the year it makes for good company.

Where: East Village, 25 East 1st Street

Why: 1977 in New York was the best/worst year in the history of American cities. It had crime, passion, poverty, art, spree killings, Richard Hell and Grandmaster Flash. One of the few lasting remnants of that time sits on the corner of 1st Street and 2nd Avenue. Mars Bar is a dive. It’s not clean and it’s probably not safe. A friend told me once that it’s the only bar in New York he’s afraid to go into, which must explain the sudden silence when you walk through the door. For these regulars, Christmas is just another day. Old men and broke punks drink side by side chatting about a wide range of topics -- from stingy addicts to social security blues. But on the loneliest night of the year it makes for good company.

Holly Jolly Soundtrack: Jukebox number 41-08 is the old 5th Dimensions R&B groove “One Less Bell to Answer;” a song about the gain that comes from losing a relationship. The line, “One less egg to fry,” sums up why you may be better off alone.



Pete’s Waterfront Ale House

Where: Brooklyn Heights, 155 Atlantic Avenue

Why: Pete’s has two locations, one in the Heights and the other in Midtown Manhattan. Since the Brooklyn version got there first it deserves the spotlight. The bar is on Atlantic Avenue, right on the rim of the affluent tree-lined streets of Brooklyn Heights. The comforting menu selection and the seasonal beers on tap put you right at home. The staff is pleasant, the bar is roomy, and the crowd is of the neighborhood. During Christmas time it’s a bar for the whole family.

A Festivus Miracle: Pete’s sells delicious homemade spiked eggnog. Drink at the bar or take it with you as a carry-out. Or drink it at the bar and be carried out. Totally up to you.



O’Connor’s

Where: Park Slope, 39 5th Avenue

Why: You’ll usually find me at O’Connor’s on Sunday afternoons, licking my wounds from another Saturday battle with the bottle. But since its Christmas, find me there on practically any day of the week, as I heal, instead, from all that Christmas joy. O’Connor’s welcomes us scrooges. Elliot Smith was, at one time, a famous mainstay and many less talented but just as depressed regulars still show their faces despite the neighborhood’s changing, yipster demographics (that’s yuppie mixed with hipster for those keeping score). Beers are $3.50 and a drink straight up doesn’t cost much more.

Holly Jolly Soundtrack: Elliot Smith, obviously. Any tune might do but “Between the Bars” speaks most eloquently to the situation.