Exclusive | NYCs hardest workers on Thanksgiving…
For most New Yorkers, Thanksgiving is a day of celebration, a day to spend time with household — and, maybe most importantly — a day without work of work.
For others, however, this is the busiest day of their 12 months — when relaxation isn’t even close to being half of the equation.
As you tuck into your annual turkey, take some time to recognize a trio of tireless Big Apple heroes, who inhabit three very different worlds within New York — each of them hitting the ground working over the vacation, protecting town heat, fed and full of vacation cheer.
Yes to the costume
Kimberly Montgomery is pictured with some of the 4,000 parade costumes at the Macy’s Studio last week. LP Media
As costume director for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, Kimberly Montgomery’s morning on the fourth Thursday in November begins hours forward of virtually everybody else’s.
She wakes up at 2.30 a.m., already driving a wave of adrenaline as she prepares to oversee the dressing of 4,000 parade contributors.
“We have 2,000 balloon handlers, 750 clowns, about 300 float escorts, about 100 costumed characters, 300 children, 500 people in officials’ jackets, and the dance teams,” Montgomery told The Post forward of the 2025 extravaganza.
Far from being frazzled, the costume commando is a seasoned professional, having labored the parade every 12 months since 2000.
“From the minute I stepped into that job I felt like I was in the right place,” the 64-year-old enthused. “I just thought, ‘My God, this is so cool, and I’m absolutely loving this.’”
The costume commando has been working the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade every 12 months since 2000. LP Media
At the daybreak of the millennium, Montgomery, who has a background as a Broadway performer, met Macy’s Parade inventive director Bill Schermerhorn.
“I asked him, ‘Hey, do you ever need a runner or somebody who can come in for a week?” she recalled. “I got hired to be the data entry person, and I literally learned the parade from the bottom up.”
In 2003, Montgomery was promoted to costume director, a position she’s held ever since.
And after more than twenty years in the job, the costume connoisseur has her Thanksgiving day routine down pat.
Montgomery was a new mother when she started working at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade back in 2000. LP Media
After her 2.30 a.m. wake-up call, she heads to the Tick Tock Diner on eighth Ave. and W. thirty fourth St. to grab a pre-dawn breakfast with a crew of 10 colleagues, fueling up for the frantic day forward.
“At 4.15 a.m., we meet about 200 of our parade day dressers and makeup artists, and we get the walkie-talkies going and turn the lights on in the [dressing] venues,” she dished. “At 5 a.m., we open the doors.”
What ensues is an avalanche of parade contributors who file in to be dressed up.
While Montgomery’s position requires supreme organizational abilities and army precision, equally important is her capability to improvise.
Jubilant contributors in last 12 months’s parade are pictured. The wet climate induced a headache for Montgomery’s crew, who had to shortly dry the clothes when they got here back to the warehouse. James Keivom
“I am actually the queen of plan B,” she quipped. “I’ve always got in my head ‘What could plan B be if plan A doesn’t work out? I’ve already got those things in my head for just about everything in the parade.”
Unlike many other large-scale spectacles, Macy’s doesn’t maintain fittings with every one of the 1000’s of contributors forward of time.
“It’s a little bit of roulette on the Thursday morning in some situations,” Montgomery explained. “But we have looked at heights and weights and inseams and all those things. Sometimes people lie a little bit, so we do have a surprise or two on occasion, but we try to prepare for plan B.”
From 5 a.m. to 2.30 p.m., Montgomery says she and her crew are “riding a wave of energy that we have to sort of keep a lid on with all of our organization.”
“Last year, everything was soaked to the socks,” Montgomery said, recalling the soppy celebrations of 2024. James Keivom
Just as important as the dressing is the undressing — as parade contributors return, their objects are put back on racks and immediately trucked back to a storage facility in New Jersey.
“We do that with every float in between Turkey and Santa [the last float],” Montgomery explained. “So by the time Santa comes back, that’s the only rack sitting in all these venues… Literally everything else has been cleaned up.”
Most importantly, the crew prays that the rain stays away, given that many clothes are re-worn or repurposed for the next 12 months as costume corporations are normally on three 12 months contracts with Macy’s.
“Last year, everything was soaked to the socks,” Montgomery said, recalling the soppy celebrations of 2024. “We had to get those dry within like 72 hours before they mildewed, otherwise you lose millions and millions of dollars worth of costumes.”
Santa makes his customary look in the 2004 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade — Montgomery’s second 12 months in the position she’s held for more than two and a half many years. Peter Kramer/NBC via Getty Images
The 1930 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade is pictured. The iconic New York festivity kicks off the start of the vacation season for Americans watching across the nation. ASSOCIATED PRESS
By mid-afternoon, Montgomery’s duties have wrapped up, and she’s prepared to have a good time Thanksgiving with her husband and two grownup sons — one of whom is taking part in this 12 months’s parade.
The household normally dines at a lodge in town, with Montgomery saying she’s actually in no temper to swap costuming for cooking.
“I try to avoid cooking at all costs, whether it’s Thanksgiving or any day of the week,” she laughed. “I’m not the best at that.”
Despite approaching retirement age, Montgomery shall be back next 12 months as Macy’s celebrates its one centesimal Thanksgiving Day Parade.
She’s proud to be a half of an iconic New York City custom, serving to to make recollections for the crowds who come to see the spectacular in particular person, as properly as the thousands and thousands more who are watching at home.
Montgomery grew up in Missouri, where she watched the parade on tv — many years before she even imagined taking such a outstanding position in the event. Ralph Bavaro/NBC via Getty Images
“I remember watching the parade as a kid with my dad on television in St. Louis,” the Missouri native recalled. “One of the first things I wanted to do when I moved to New York City in 1988 was stand on the street in the cold and watch Macy’s parade go by, which I did.”
“It really does kick off the holiday season,” she continued. “Macy’s has been doing this for 99 years — that’s pretty phenomenal.”
The host with the most
Marty Rogers, 70, organizes a sit-down meal for lots of in his neighborhood, the Melrose part of The Bronx. Stefano Giovannini for Ny Post
Marty Rogers, a 70-year-old retiree and lifelong member of Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in the Melrose part of The Bronx, can’t even keep in mind what it’s like to kick back and calm down on Thanksgiving Day.
For the past 47 years, he’s been a pivotal half of the vacation dinner supplied by the parish to neighbors in need — an event he helped arrange when he was just a child, and one he now organizes and oversees.
The thought for the free feast originated when aged parishioners with no household in the world had nowhere to go. Wanting to help, the Immaculate Conception youth group determined to serve up a modest meal.
“We had three turkeys, which we conned our parents into making,” Rogers told The Post, chuckling at the reminiscence. “Because we were high school and college folks, we weren’t exactly doing much in terms of the kitchen. But the need was there.”
Rogers (proper) works with a small military of group volunteers, including local firefighters, to pull of the annual event in a church basement close to The Hub. Enrique Gonzalez
Nearly 5 many years later, the annual do has ballooned to grow to be a full-on event in the church’s social corridor, full with a whopping 40 turkeys served by 150 volunteers, a number of programs and, in current years, even leisure put on by a local troupe of Mexican dancers.
“We’re like Radio City Music Hall, except we feed you,” Rogers said.
Holiday culinary staples like mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberry sauce are ready to feed roughly 500 hungry eaters. The church sometimes serves around 200 seated in the corridor (though some take their meals to go), delivering the remainder to those who can’t bodily make it to the banquet.
Rogers is loud and proud about the fact that the church’s younger people, ranging from elementary college to high college college students, make up more than half of the dinner’s volunteers. The event is a household affair, too — his spouse Francine Nolin-Rogers and their three grownup youngsters and grandchildren have fortunately pitched in over the years.
The event bought its start many years in the past when Rogers was a member of the church youth group, which needed to do one thing for aged parishioners caught without household on Thanskgiving Day. Enrique Gonzalez
The church doesn’t promote the meal on social media, fairly relying on word-of-mouth and flyers handed out on Rogers’ common Hope Walks, where he arms out sandwiches and encouragement along E. 149th St. a number of instances a week, throughout the 12 months.
Donations in the shape of food and funds are gathered before the big day in preparation. Rogers estimates that the dinner prices around $3,000 in whole, but would price over $7,000 if they’d to pay for turkeys, which the close by Sisters of Christian Charity (who run a turkey drive in conjunction with a New Jersey church) normally present, along with other local teams.
Volunteers spend the Monday before Thanksgiving sprucing up the corridor with streamers and decorations to make it look “beautiful and very festive.”
Others put together the turkeys in their own houses, garnishing the meat with herbs and spices. Rogers said that the birds ready in some volunteers’ houses come out smelling like garlic, while others have the distinct scent of jerk.
Rogers reveals the basement social corridor at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, where the Thanksgiving Day dinner is held every 12 months. Stefano Giovannini for Ny Post
As for the service itself, Rogers is adamant that it runs like a “five star restaurant.”
“When (the guests) come in, they’re greeted, they get a name tag,” Rogers said. “Everyone calls each other by their name. Then they go to the maître d’, who wears a bow tie and seats people…We take care of them, that’s our motto. We don’t want them to get up.”
The volunteers, many of whom are bilingual and can serve the world’s large Spanish-speaking population, do more than merely move out plates.
As they take orders (each particular person can choose what objects they like off the pre-set menu), Rogers asks his youthful volunteers that instead of going on their “bloody cellphones,” they take a bit of time to chat with the company. He’s noticed that they gladly oblige.
Volunteers line up at the desk to take plates of food to the dinner company, who are invited to be seated when they arrive, and never have to get up during the meal. Enrique Gonzalez
Though Rogers is hesitant to settle for any quantity of credit for the dinner’s yearly success, fellow Immaculate Conception parishioner Mary Anne Christopher was fast to emphasize how integral he’s to pulling off the feast — along with how keen fellow church members and members of the group are to help him do it.
“He asks, and we answer,” Christopher told The Post. “He’s pretty much like, ‘No pressure, do what you can’, but people figure it out because they want to help. They find a way.”
When the day is finished (sometimes around 2 p.m.), Rogers, his spouse and any youngsters and grandchildren current then help clean up before heading home, where they get pleasure from their own meal together as a household — that’s something but turkey.
Thanksgiving is just someday on Rogers’ busy calendar — he’s recognized around the neighborhood for his frequent, sometimes three-times-weekly Hope Walks, where he feeds sandwiches and affords prayers and encouragement to people along E. 149th St. and surrounding blocks in the struggling space. Stefano Giovannini for Ny Post
“We usually have baked ziti and meatballs, sausage or chicken parmesan. Some kind of Italian food, because we’re tired of smelling and looking at turkeys,” Rogers admitted. “We’ve been in turkey mode up to the elbows for weeks at that point.”
And while he’s exhausted at the end of the day, he wouldn’t have Thanksgiving any other means, he said.
“We were built to share. We were built to be brothers and sisters — we are brothers and sisters,” said Rogers. “Kindness and service and sharing is our natural environment, and we’ve gotten away from that…Give (your time) away and just keep it simple. That’s what I’ve seen from the generosity of so many wonderful people.”
Let her cook
More than a decade after beginning her culinary profession, Hav & Mar govt chef Fariyal Abdullahi, 39, said she’s used to spending Thanksgiving and other holidays in a restaurant. Dan Chen
To Fariyal Abdullahi, a 39-year-old govt chef helming the kitchen at fashionable Chelsea seafood spot Hav & Mar, spending Thanksgiving bustling around the cheery restaurant accompanied by her beloved employees appears only natural.
Now in her thirteenth 12 months of working her means up the culinary industry ladder — during which she “cut her teeth” at the World’s 50 Best and three-Michelin-star Copenhagen institution Noma and labored the 2021 Met Gala — Abdullahi maintains that she’s gotten used to donning her chef’s jacket and cap during these conventional days of relaxation.
“They tell you these things in culinary school — that you’re going to be working Thanksgiving and Christmas and you probably won’t be able to make most graduations or birthday parties,” Abdullahi told The Post. “It doesn’t really sink in then, but the first year you’re an actual professional working in a kitchen, it’s no joke.”
Abdullahi said that the way in which Hav & Mar company are significantly expressive with their gratitude for the restaurant’s mouthwatering worldwide delicacies on Thanksgiving Day makes it a lot simpler to come into work on everybody else’s day without work.
She’s had stints at Noma in Copenhagen and has cooked at the Met Gala, but she’s still behind the counter at her fashionable Chelsea restaurant on Thanksgiving Day. Angela Bankhead
“No one’s ever in a bad mood on Thanksgiving,” Abdullahi said, laughing. “Everyone who comes in here is just so grateful that we’re even open…More than any other day, I always have guests coming to say ‘thank you.’”
Abdullahi, handpicked by restaurateur Marcus Samuelsson to lead the crew at Hav & Mar, which opened in late 2022, had not always aimed to grow to be a chef.
Born and raised in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, she got here to the United States at 17 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology — with the final word purpose of changing into a doctor, like most of her 5 older siblings.
However, when the time got here to apply to grad college, Abdullahi discovered herself secretly filling out culinary college functions instead.
Born in Ethiopia, Abdullahi discovered a kindred spirit in Ethiopian-Swedish celeb chef Marcus Samuelsson (proper), who tapped her to run Hav & Mar. Angela Bankhead
Over a decade later, Abdullahi’s dream has grow to be a actuality. She infuses her cooking with the fierce pleasure she holds in her Ethiopian roots and the affect of her years in Nordic kitchens — two connections she serendipitously shares with Ethiopian-Swedish chef Samuelsson, who named the restaurant after the Swedish phrase for ocean (“hav”) and Amharic phrase for honey (“mar”).
Though this blended heritage served as the unique inspiration for the critically acclaimed eatery — where plates vary from $13 for a blue cornbread appetizer to $109 for slow-cooked oxtail biryani — Abdullahi shared that the menu, which rotates 4 instances a 12 months and is still largely seafood, has since developed to inform the culinary story of a broader vary of immigrants.
“I have two (sous) chefs from the Philippines and they started making me some Filipino dishes,” Abdullahi recalled. “I have a line cook who’s from Peru, I have a line cook who’s from Ecuador, and everybody just kind of started to chime in. Chef Marcus and I had a conversation and we were like, you know what? This is exactly what New York is.”
For Thanksgiving Day, Abdullahi doesn’t curate a menu with the normal American fixings, though the restaurant did strive using a buffet fashion with basic staples during its first 12 months.
Abdullahi told The Post she’s completely satisfied to create a non permanent home for those without other plans on the big vacation — and that she hopes they really feel like they had been half of one thing particular. Angela Bankhead
Instead, company can order one of Hav & Mar’s signature dishes à la carte — that are ready by Abdullahi and the remainder of the restaurant crew. Typically, that contains three people for prep work in the morning and six people at evening to serve up to 140 prospects (though the vacation turnout traditionally rings in at around 80).
Abdullahi shared that her Hav & Mar employees — some of whom have been there since the restaurant’s opening — seems like “an extended family,” which makes spending the day away from blood kinfolk a bit simpler on everybody.
Prior to their Thanksgiving shift, the group sits down to their own holiday-inspired ‘family meal’ — a custom in some eating places where staff collect together to eat food before serving company. While the unfold is usually ready by one particular person in the eatery’s kitchen, Abdullahi says that virtually everybody likes to pitch in on Turkey Day.
“A couple days ago, one of our supervisors for the A.M. prep team named Maria asked if for Thanksgiving this year, she could make us tamales,” Abdullahi recalled. “Then she and the prep team were planning out different flavors and asking everyone what they wanted to eat. It was really cute.”
The secret sauce to this close-knit really feel? Abdullahi makes sure she “always leaves (her) kitchen with joy.”
“There will always be discipline and making sure there’s work getting done, but I have a ‘no yelling’ policy — I try to create as joyful an environment as I can,” she continued. “So we’re always playing music, we’re always having fun. It’s a great place to be.”
More than something, Abdullahi hopes that the Hav & Mar Thanksgiving crowd leaves their feast feeling “filled with ‘joie de vivre.’”
“I love creating traditions with my team and creating a temporary home for people who can’t be with (the rest of) their families for whatever reason,” Abdullahi said. “I want them to leave feeling cared for, like they were part of something special.”
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