Martin Scorsese’s underrated 1985 cult classic After Hours was about a man stuck in Lower Manhattan after the offices closed without cab or transit fare to get north, where most people lived. Unlike today, those streets were much quieter then and thought to be sinister, all things Scorsese explored in the film.

Now that so many new inhabitants are living in and around Toronto’s financial district, any After Hours emptiness it might have had is a thing of the past. Yet a visit there after most of the office workers have gone home is still a different experience than by day, especially in the PATH system.

Much of it is open late into the evening and walking the corridors when the shops are closed is a strange experience; a place where thousands of people move by day seems emptier at night. You’re not supposed to hear your own footsteps in this busy place, but you can at night. Clip clop.

When a hockey or basketball game is on, fans will be trying to find their way to the ACC, the out of town jerseys only slightly more lost than the home fans, perhaps as Scorsese as Toronto gets these days.

During the holidays the city’s patterns are off, too, a nice kind of topsy turvy when we forget what day of the week it is. Kids are out of school and many adults have more than a week off. The temptation might be to go to big museums or other major attractions, but they’ll be extra busy, so instead try a few places that might not be on everyone’s radar and use this week as an excuse to be a tourist in your own city by visiting some of the smaller museums around town.

Tucked in on Centre St. behind Toronto City Hall is the Textile Museum of Canada on the second floor of a residential building. “Telling Stories,” one of the current exhibitions, explores how stories are told through fabric, and “Urban Fabric: Portraits of a City,” has work by artists interpreting the city as an interwoven object.

Until mid-January the Cabbagetown Regent Park Community Museum has temporarily set up at the Daniels Spectrum on Dundas St. with a two-floor exhibit called “Close to Home: How Work, Life and Play Coexist in 1914 Cabbagetown” with material and photos exploring the area currently undergoing revitalization.

If visiting St. Lawrence Market, check out the Market Gallery run by the City of Toronto on the second floor and catch the exhibit “Toronto Does Her Bit: The Home Front in the Great War” exploring life in Toronto during the First World War. If feeling intrepid, take a tour of some of the City’s 11 historic sights like the Scarborough Historical Museum in Thomson Park or Montgomery’s Inn in Etobicoke. Gibson House on Yonge St. in North York is open, but currently surrounded by condo construction. Worth the visit to experience new and old Toronto side by side.

The Markham Museum at 16th Ave. and Markham Rd. also has a Great War exhibit on in addition to its open-air museum of historic buildings moved there from around the area. If you visit, be sure to also check out Heritage Corners Lane located just east of the museum off 16th Ave. It’s the strangest suburban cul-de-sacs around: instead of contemporary structures, each house is a historic structure moved there from elsewhere, but unlike the museum, all are private homes. It feels like a film set.

The Toronto Zoo is another place you might not think of as a winter destination, but it’s open every day except Dec. 25 and people have been known to ski its 10 kilometres of trails that wander in and around some dramatic Rouge Valley landscape. Like people lost during the oblivious on the holidays, the animals don’t know what day it is either.

Shawn Micallef writes every Friday about where and how we live in the GTA. Wander the streets with him on Twitter @shawnmicallef

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