Gramercy Park will open to the public for one hour on Christmas Eve

For one precious hour, mere mortals will have the chance to walk through Gramercys Park‘s iron gates sans key. Curbed reports that on Christmas Eve the Gramercy Park Block Association will host its annual holiday caroling hour with the local Parish of Calvary-St. George’s, and from 6:00 to 7:00pm all will be welcome.

I didn’t run into Jimmy Fallon at dusk in Gramercy Park but it didn’t stop me from wishing. #latergram #nofilter #gramercypark #jimmyfallon #nyc #newyork #holiday #dusk #december #christmastree #chryslerbuilding #lexingtonave #fakeretirementisawesome

A post shared by Todd Doughty (@toddadoughty) on Dec 4, 2016 at 6:06pm PST

While an hour might not seem like a lot of time, it’s the only time during the year other than a brief springtime stint that the public can access the park. Otherwise, it’s only open to those who have one of its highly-coveted 400 keys. As 6sqft previously reported, “only those who live in dwellings circling the park have keyed access via an annual fee.” Each year, the locks and keys for the four gates are changed, and to ensure they’re not replicated, they’re”specially manufactured for Gramercy Park’s shareholders by Medeco” to be non-duplicable. Key holders can bring a maximum of five guests at a time, but losing that precious key will set you back $1,000.

[Via Curbed]

RELATED:

• From Swamps to Swank: A Brief History of Gramercy Park Hotel and the Garden’s Highly Coveted Keys
• You Can Now Tour Gramercy Park Without a Key, Thanks to Airbnb and Google Maps
• 104 years ago, the nation’s first public Christmas tree went up in Madison Square Park

Lead image via toddadoughty/Instagram