New York City Event Guide | Christmas | Holiday Window Displays and Decorations

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Christmas in New York

Holiday Window Displays

 

 

New York City Event Guide

Christmas Window Displays


What do New Yorkers like best to do during the Christmas season? One 'must' is to stroll along 5th Avenue on a pleasant, brisk evening and take in the store windows decorated for the holidays

Start at Macy's on Herald Square, take a short jog over to Lord & Taylor on 5th and amble up the Avenue to Saks, maybe stopping for a bag of fresh-roasted chestnuts from a street vendor along the way. Be sure to make a stop to see the tree at Rockefeller Center. Then it's on up the Avenue to continue your window shopping and a detour over to Bloomingdale's on Lexington Avenue. And hey! If there's snow on the ground, finish up with a buggy ride through Central Park. We usually take a stroll Thanksgiving evening to walk off a bit of our holiday dinner. It's a good night to see the holiday windows, not as many people as when the stores are open and a great way to get into the holiday spirit

Bloomingdale's

Lexington Avenue at 59th Street

Unveiling Thursday, November 18, 2004  4:00P

Bloomie's has never been that big in the Christmas window display tradition. However, this year it's trumpeting a "Holiday Window Unveiling" themed to the Phantom of the Opera, the movie version which is to be released in December. We're not quite sure how this tie-in is going to work, specifically how Phantom is going to be redone for the holidays. The unveiling ceremony at least should be a hoot, with Andrew Lloyd Weber and stars Gerard Butler, Emmy Rossum, Patrick Wilson and Minnie Driver from the film on hand. We'll take a walk over to see exactly how well this works; hope we don't wind up too disappointed

Macy's Herald Square

Broadway & 34th Street

Unveiling Monday, November 8, 2004  4:30P

Macy's Polar Express windowMacy's got a jump on everybody this year by unveiling its holiday windows very, very early. Themed after the new Tom Hanks film Polar Express, the windows should be quite a hit with the 'tween set (at least we think that's what the age range is called). We haven't as yet seen the film, so Macy's Polar Express windowour description of the windows is very limited. Each window depicts a scene from the film, such as the interior of a railroad during the wild ride, and (we think), the young boy possibly making up his Christmas wish list with the help of Santa. We tried to get some hints from the film's website, but didn't have much luck. Presumably, you and yours will have a better handle on the characters and plot and are more likely to enjoy the nuances we missed. The bottom line is that the scenes will be very enjoyable for children of a certain age

Macy's Miracle on 34th Street window

Hint You can still find our favorite windows around the corner. On the 34th Street side of the store are, appropriately, the Miracle on 34th Street windows. These unpublicized windows charmingly depict scenes from the ever-popular film and are always worth a visit

Lord & Taylor

5th Avenue & 38th Street

Unveiling Tuesday, November 16, 2004 5:00P

Lord & Taylor window: Ben Franklin in 1773For Christmas 2004 celebrates the US Postal Services "decades of delivering holiday joy through sleet, rain and snow." There are plenty of opportunity for the designers to come up with those snowy, wintry, homey, holiday scenes for which Lord & Taylor windows are so well known, and they don't disappoint. The dioramas trace the Lord & Taylor window: Mississippi riverboat dockhistory of the postal service from the time of Ben Franklin and delivery of mail along the first post roads in the original colonies, through the different eras of the country's history and different methods of getting the mail through. There's a great little scene from 1830s Mississippi that shows mail being unloaded from a riverboat, along with some equine cargo. You just have Lord & Taylor window: Colorado stage coach stopto wonder what the horse is thinking. The 1840s brings us to the then wilds of far west Colorado during the time when mail was first being delivered by stage coach. The designers then take us way back to the east coast and the interior of a train station somewhere in the Hudson River Lord & Taylor window: Hudson River Valley train stationValley, circa 1889, when most of the mail, and other travel, was now by railroad

A bit of trivia Do you know why these windows are usually some of the nicest and most detailed? The building originally housed an auto dealership on the first floor; the showcase windows are mounted on hydraulic lift systems that lower into the basement where cars could be driven on, then raised back into position. Decorators work on the holiday windows in the basement while above, the day-to-day window displays are mounted on temporary flooring. Other department stores have to cover their windows during installation and, remember, time is money

Saks Fifth Avenue

5th Avenue & 49th Street

Unveiling Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Saks window: Chrissie checks her listJames Patterson, the popular mystery-thriller author, took a bit of a detour this year, releasing an illustrated children's book for the holidays titled Santa Kid, illustrated by Michael Garland. Now, we've always known there was a Mrs Claus; what we didn't know until now is that there's also a kid at the North Pole, daughter Chrissie. She had a great life up at the pole, until one day a sinister businessman arrives and exclaims, "We're here to buy the North Pole. We're here to buy Christmas!" It was Warrie Ransom, boss of the Exmas Express Saks window: Chrissie meets Warrie RansomCompany (from now on Christmas is going to be called "Exmas"), whose motive is to turn the holiday into a strictly commercial enterprise. Exmas Express's factory start turning out somewhat cheap, very questionable toys; workers become disheartened, and even Santa is depressed enough to say, "I guess I don't believe in Christmas, anymore." It looks like it's going to be a terrible Christmas Even When the Saks window: Chrissie drives the sleighcompany's delivery trucks have problems. Santa can't be found, so Chrissie rises to the occasion, packing "good" toys into the sleigh, grabbing the reigns, and rising into the night with the reindeer. Magic can happen, because, as her father taught her, "You have to believe. Believe in something bigger than yourself"

Hint The Saks' location makes this area very crowded. In 2002 it took us three tries to see the windows; finally succeeded one morning when the wait in line was only 20 minutes -- and this was well before noon. (We were smarter in 2003 and strolled by Thanksgiving evening.) The line to view the windows starts on the 50th Street side of the store, often wrapping around the corner and down the block

A Frequently Asked Question

"For how long do the department stores keep the windows decorated?" is one almost impossible to answer. The answer from one department store information lady best sums it up: "They don't like us to know that, though I think they will stay decorated until January 5th or 6th." We think that with New Year's Day on a Friday this year, we wouldn't be surprised if the windows stayed decorated only through that weekend

 

 

 

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