Froma Harrop, syndicated columnist

Fifth Avenue swarms with tourists grinning at the fabulous scene as retailers cash in on the cheer. Christmas in New York is a Rockettes kick line of store windows awash in fantasy and light spectaculars. But something is missing from the big show this year.

That would be Donald Trump. In truth, the president hasn’t made much of a Gotham showing in years — striking, given how hard he once worked to make Christmas in New York all about him, before he moved on to making the world all about him, all the time.

Sure, Trump Tower still looms over Fifth and just a few steps from the gilded Plaza Hotel. Earlier in his presidency, Trump Tower was itself one of the sights, with tourists taking selfies with the armed guards behind. Now it is just another of the notable buildings on the avenue.

However, the Christmas movies featuring Trump as grantor of holiday cheer get replayed every year around this time. The most famous is “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” from 1992.

Lost boy Macaulay Culkin finds himself in an ornate corridor of the Plaza as enchanting children’s music plays in the background. As Trump is about to pass him, the boy says, “Excuse me. Where’s the lobby?” A pointing Trump says, “Down the hall and to the left.” The boy says, “Thanks.”

That’s the scene. Trump owned the Plaza at the time (though his creditors held a reported 49% of the equity). Trump demanded that the director include a cameo starring him as the price of permission to film there.

Another example of Trump inserting himself into a Christmas movie as the quintessential rich and benevolent New Yorker comes in the 2011 film “Mr. Popper’s Penguins.” In the story, crates containing live penguins are delivered to the posh apartment of Mr. Popper, a divorced father played by Jim Carrey. The penguins lead Popper on adventures containing references to Trump.

Popper and the penguins go skating at what was then the Trump Wollman Rink in Central Park. The camera pauses on the name TRUMP, virtually leaving out Wollman. The rink has since gone back to its original name, simply, the Wollman Rink.

A film reviewer for the National Catholic Register wrote at the time: “What is up with this Donald Trump as product placement?” Product placement is a marketing deal where a brand’s product or name is inserted into a movie as part of a scene. It’s a sneaky form of advertising.

There’s another sequence in the landmark Tavern on the Green where Popper quips, “You can’t even get a reservation here unless you’re dating The Donald.”

The real story back then was that the famed Central Park restaurant had fallen on hard times. Trump was then talking big to the New York media about plans to spend $20 million to rebuild Tavern and make it “the highest-grossing restaurant on the planet.” But when the city Parks Department asked potential operators to submit bids, Trump was nowhere to be seen.

“Bizarrely, the movie pretends that Trump already has something to do with the place,” the reviewer complained.

As Christmas movies go, “Mr. Popper’s Penguins” was no “Miracle on 34th Street,” a film about an elderly man named Kris Kringle whom Macy’s hired to play Santa but who insists he’s the true Santa Claus. Though “Miracle” appeared to be a ginormous ad for Macy’s, the store apparently didn’t pay 20th Century Fox for its essential role. On the contrary, Macy’s demanded that Fox show the movie to its executives before they allowed its name to be used.

What a different culture it was back in 1947.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com. To find out more about Froma Harrop and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

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