Is Luxembourg the Grinch Who Stole Christmas?

       My Orchids. "Puttin on the Ritz:. Photo ET

Is Luxembourg the Grinch Who Stole Christmas?

Annie Get Your Gun! We have to stop the Grinch who stole Christmas again, this time at the Luxembourg House in New York. There will be no Miracle at 17 Beekman Place. Christmas eve caroling at the House was canceled for the first time in 35 years!

   

    
                                      But Annie's gun is knotted. Photo: Luxembourg's gift to the UN.

Say it isn't so! No White Christmas, no Carols at Irving Berlin's former home? I'm shocked and the New York Post reported: "Silent Night at Irv Berlin's"

http://www.nypost.com/p/pagesix/silent_night_at_irv_berlin_IrSCfIdXJR3hnlRCxBnErN

Here is an excerpt from the New York Post:

“Every year, through word of mouth, it would get a bit bigger,” said a source. This year’s installment was to include a gig by drag guru Lypsinka.

But international affairs have seemingly interfered with the chorus’ criteria. “The ballroom is now full of tables, and computers, and IT equipment,” says Goldsteinn, whose group was last year given a smaller library in which to perform. Now he’s pulled the plug. He says it was, “so packed, so madcap,” he had to “stand on a kitchen stool.”

Now don't Call me Madam and drag me into the itsy-bitsy teeny-weeny details of the dispute. The culprit is the limitless ambition of some Luxembourg officials who desperately wanted to profile themselves on the United Nations' Security Council. It is a recent Luxembourg syndrome: unbridled international ambition.

Now the Mouse that roared needed to ship the backup team from Luxembourg to New York, all seven of them, (though there is a very tall one), and cram them into Irving Berlins former bathroom and living room. And drill holes and move furniture, a real show. May I remind you that there's no Business like Show Business?

As the former Consul General of Luxembourg who bought the place 23 years ago for the Luxembourg government, I hate to have to come out again and again with my stepmotherly-in-law advice. Couldn't you rent space just across from the UN, commensurate with your ambitions for those two years of world-saving activity? And keep the existing space for ongoing business?

Ooh, the cost of it? After spending millions on getting elected to the UN Security Council in the first place, and on programs such as the Development Program ($413 million in 2013, try to call 011 352 2478 2300 if you need something), Peace Keeping and Kyoto, and for such frivolities as luxury apartments whereas the official residence stays empty, or shuffling around Consuls, because that accommodates a spouse working for a law firm, why get cheap all of a sudden? More in my memoirs, in the chapter: "Puttin' on the Ritz".