Harlem Pier, 10:35 A.M.

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Temperatures dipped but were still warm on Monday, winter’s second full day, as fog cloaked the view of New Jersey from Harlem. Tuesday’s high may not hit 40.

Harlem Pier, 10:35 A.M.

Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times Temperatures dipped but were still warm on Monday, winter’s second full day, as fog cloaked the view of New Jersey from Harlem. Tuesday’s high may not hit 40.

An Interview With the Next Police Commissioner of New York City

William J. Bratton starts his second tour as commissioner of the New York Police Department in a little more than a week. Since his selection earlier this month by Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio, the usually gregarious police leader has shied away from the cameras, engaging in behind-the-scenes planning but making few public statements.

His first interview, a telephone conversation Friday with The New York Times, focused on his time as a security consultant and executive for an article about that underexamined part of his much-heralded career.

He was careful to avoid discussion of what he would do as commissioner - “You’re going to have to wait and see,” he said - but in the 19-minute discussion he provided some hints to the sort of leadership style he hoped to bring to Police Headquarters, 17 years after he left.

“You’ll be hearing a lot about collaboration, that’s going to be a major theme in the Police Department,” he said. “It echoes what the mayor is trying to do with city government. You’ll hear a lot of that terminology.”

It is a language and philosophy Mr. Bratton is comfortable with. His 2012 book, “Collaborate or Perish!,” written with Zachary Tumin, draws on Mr. Bratton’s experience as a police leader to provide advice to business readers on the benefits of teamwork and reaching out.

Indeed, almost immediately after being appointed by Mr. de Blasio, Mr. Bratton met with minority leaders and police reform advocates, seeking their views on the department’s stop-and-frisk practices and other contentious areas of policing.

Mr. Bratton said Friday that he was intensely focused on the transition at Police Headquarters. He said he has been working directly with the current commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly.

“Commissioner Kelly has been extraordinarily, extraordinarily helpful and available,” Mr. Bratton said.

“The commissioner and I met the other day and the transition could not be going more smoothly,” he said. “There is nothing that we have asked for that they have not responded to. They’ve been extraordinarily gracious.”

He heaped praise on Mr. Kelly’s tenure as commissioner, the longest in the department’s history. “He loves this city,” Mr. Bratton said, “he loves this department and he’s not going to do anything to impede the continued success of the N.Y.P.D. and the success of the city that he spent so much time serving.”

For Mr. Kelly, who first served as commissioner under Mayor David N. Dinkins, it is the second time he has handed over the reigns of the New York Police Department to Mr. Bratton, who replaced him after Rudolph W. Giuliani won the 1993 mayoral election on a law-and-order platform.

Mr. Bratton developed a national reputation for bringing down crime and found local fame as a man-about-town, mixing at Elaine’s, the now-defunct Upper East Side restaurant, with the city’s political and cultural leaders.

Despite having returned to the city from Los Angeles in recent years, Mr. Bratton said he has yet to find a replacement for that social scene.

“Sadly, for those who liked to patronize Elaine’s, they’re like the lost tribe of Israel,” he said. “They’re all still wandering around trying to find another Elaine’s. Nobody has found it yet.”

He said that when he becomes commissioner next month he will visit the reporters who cover the Police Department from a tight warren of offices on the second floor of Police Headquarters, a space known internally as the shack.

“I’ll stop by down at the shack,” he said. “Who knows, that might be the next Elaine’s.”

New York Today: A Christmas Tree Secret

Kirsten Luce for The New York Times Most Christmas trees in the city are trucked in from far away.

Updated, 8:52 a.m.

Good Monday morning on what will be a wet finale to our freakish streak of warm weather.

Have you sourced your Christmas tree?

Odds are that it was not chopped locally.

Of the million or so Christmas trees harvested in New York State every year, only a small fraction are sold in the city.

After we mentioned this surprising fact a few weeks ago, we decided to learn more.

It turns out that most Christmas trees in the city come from North Carolina, which supplies Fraser firs and Douglas firs in vast quantities.

They arrive overnight on tractor trailers.

Vendors rely on North Carolina because of its large supplies and low prices.

One exception: the city’s Greenmarkets, where the trees are locally grown.

Nancy Daigneault, who has sold Christmas trees in Park Slope for 11 years, said all the trees at her vendor’s roughly 100 stands came from North Carolina.

Had she ever sold a tree from New York?

“Never,” she said.

Farms in New York State harvest enough Christmas trees each year to cover Central Park.

“It’s been hard to break in,” said Ned Chapman, a board member of the Christmas Tree Farmers Association of New York.

Most of those trees are sold in the rest of the state. But that could change soon.

The state recently earmarked $100,000 to promote New York trees.

Here’s what else you need to know for Monday.

WEATHER

A split day. Part I is rainy and warm. Part II is kind of like winter.

Temperatures will hover around 60 as perhaps half an inch of rain falls by afternoon. Then cloudy and down to 35, and staying cold through Christmas.

Sunday’s high of 71, by the way, shattered the record by 8 degrees.

COMMUTE

Subways: Delays on the N and Q. Check latest status.

Rails: Delays of up to 15 minutes on Metro-North. L.I.R.R., Metro-North or New Jersey Transit status.

Roads: No unusual delays. Check traffic map or radio report on the 1s or the 8s.

Alternate-side parking is in effect even though it is Festivus.

DE BLASIO WATCH

From Michael M. Grynbaum of the City Hall bureau of The Times:

- The mayor-elect makes an announcement at a metal fabricator in Brooklyn at noon, perhaps naming a deputy mayor for economic development.

- On Sunday, Mr. de Blasio appointed Gladys Carrión, an experienced state social services official, to be child welfare commissioner. [New York Times]

- Asked if he might appoint Republicans to his inner circle, the left-leaning Mr. de Blasio quipped, “Let’s not get crazy about this diversity idea.”  [New York Times]

COMING UP TODAY

- Mayor Bloomberg cuts the ribbon on a Times Square street reconstruction and donates blood.

- New street recycling bins are unveiled uptown.

- Can’t wait for the New Year’s Eve ball drop? The giant lights that spell out the number 14 are on display at the Times Square Visitor Center.

- A film scholar presents clips from classic musicals at the Mid-Manhattan Library. 6:30 p.m. [Free]

- For more events, see The New York Times Arts & Entertainment guide.

IN THE NEWS

- A man threw his three-year-old son from a Manhattan high-rise and then jumped. Both died. The man had been sharing custody of the boy with his estranged wife. [New York Times]

- Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn will close within a month. [Crain's]

- Before the hospital closes, a theater company will stage an Edward Albee play inside it. [DNAinfo]

- Mayor Bloomberg finally made his “Saturday Night Live” debut. [New York Times]

- Jets top Browns, 24-13. Giants slay Lions in overtime, 23-20. Rangers tame Wild, 4-1.

AND FINALLY…

The year 1908 was our Christmas without movies.

On Christmas Eve, Mayor George McClellan shut down all 550 movie houses in the city.

He said that films were likely to burst into flame, and that the theaters had inadequate fire exits.

They were reopened a few days later.

Joseph Burgess contributed reporting.

New York Today is a morning roundup that stays live from 6 a.m. till late morning.

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