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 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
 our 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
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
 For
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
 history 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
 to 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
 Valley,
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
 James
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
 Company
(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
 company'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 |
