Holiday

Oh There's No Place Like Work For the Holidays

Whether they’re scrambling to find eggnog for a last-minute shopper, parking cars for holiday sightseers or fighting fires for someone who left the space heater on, for many New Yorkers, Christmas is just another working day.

For some, it’s a way to earn extra money; for others, it’s time they’re forced to spend away from family. For each of them, punching in on Dec. 25 means something slightly different.

“You have the attitude people, and you have the jolly people.”

Ethan Prescott, 23, has a literal bounce in his step when he walks. At the Gristedes supermarket where he works as a porter, Prescott maneuvers expertly through the narrow aisles, shelving boxes of pasta, checking expiration dates of milk and adding new apples to the bin. Prescott, the father of two young children, is scheduled to work on Christmas but welcomes the overtime.

“I don’t mind working over Christmas,” he said, walking to the subway station after his shift was over. He juggled a Newport cigarette in his hand, trying to light it in the frosty air. Still, last year at Christmas “was a headache,” he admits. Christmastime at a supermarket means customers are anxious to buy something quickly. But Prescott never argues with anyone at work. “My patience is a virtue,” he said, his dark brown eyes lighting up.

“You have the attitude people, and you have the jolly people,” he said, entering a McDonald’s to get out of the cold.

Prescott is from Jamaica, where Christmas means 77-degree weather and celebrations with his large family of five brothers and four sisters. This Christmas, the celebration will wait until after church and working a 7-hour shift at Gristedes, when Prescott will finally be able to take the train home to Connecticut and celebrate with his 3-year old son, Ethan, and 2-month-old daughter, Starlina.

“I’ve got a whole bunch of gifts to wrap when I get home,” he said.

“Holidays is time to be with the family.”

Jean Bazile emigrated from Haiti when he was 18. Now 45, he juggles his family with two jobs: as a manager at Central Parking Garages and as a security officer at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. On a chilly December afternoon, he sat underneath a brightly lit wreath at the front desk of the Infirmary, answered calls and sipped a Pepsi.

This Thanksgiving, he worked both jobs, returning home at midnight to the disappointment of his family.

“My wife was about to throw the turkey at me,” he said, smiling. But his two daughters, Patricia, 6, and Gaelle, 3, didn’t understand why he wasn’t home, he said.

So for Christmas this year, Bazile plans to take off from the Infirmary and just work a half-day at the parking garage. He’ll be able to head home in time to celebrate with his family, enjoying his favorite Haitian dish, Joumou soup, made with pumpkin, sweet potatoes, macaroni, meat, vegetables and spices.

“Holidays is time to be with the family,” he said. “I don’t want to spend the whole time working, working, working.”

“Being here is your home away from home.”

Christmas Day is a cooking day at Ladder Company No. 3 on East 13th Street. Firefighter Jerald Perillo, 28, who is originally from Staten Island, lends a hand cooking stuffed mushrooms, ham and lasagna. Usually the firefighters have to pay for their own food, but on Christmas, they receive money from the commissary to pay for a decent feast. Perillo looks forward to Christmas every year (he’s already begun his shopping) and listens regularly to the holiday music on 106.7 FM, despite complaints from his fellow firefighters.

Working over Christmas is “upsetting if you have a family,” he said. He doesn’t have kids but was recently married. However, he added, “Being here is your home away from home.”

The firefighters don’t get overtime for working on the holidays. Instead, they receive a semi-annual holiday check that reimburses them for time worked, or not worked, for all holidays. Winters in general are busier for firefighters than summers, Perillo said. “There’s more fire, people are using space heaters.”

Inside the station, Perillo pointed out the 10-foot-tall Christmas tree, not yet decorated, standing in the back of the station. The firefighters will decorate it for a children’s Christmas party next week.

Perillo himself has worked two Christmas Days in his five years as firefighter, in 2001 and 2003. The first Christmas after the Sept. 11 attacks “was difficult,” he said, looking down. “We lost 12 guys here.”

He thought for a moment about the sacrifice of working as a firefighter, not only on Christmas, but also on every day of the year.

“You make the best of it,” he said. “This is your family. Here in the house, we all love each other.”