Right after Halloween leaves our midst, New York City transforms into a magical winter wonderland. As the city gets decked out in snowflakes and sparkling Christmas lights, New Yorkers are enveloped in the urban winter atmosphere. While I wandered through Bryant Park’s Winter Village, I couldn’t help but sing that classic Christmas jingle to myself: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
It’s also the most consumer-esque time of the year. Department stores all around Midtown make themselves especially attractive for the holiday season in hopes of visually attracting the masses. Stores such as Macy’s, Lord & Taylor and Saks all compete to present the most stunning holiday windows and to make the most money, of course. This year, the themes of the windows are especially creative in different ways.
Macy’s in Herald Square took on a theme fun for adults and children alike. They created “A Charlie Brown Christmas” based on the well-known Peanuts comic in honor of its fiftieth anniversary. Passersby can walk through the story of Charlie Brown’s Christmas with characters that actually move and speak.
In the first window, Charlie Brown tells Linus that even with all the Christmas cheer, he still finds himself unhappy. In the background, Snoopy sits happily on houses lit decorated in Christmas ornaments as it snows. In the second window, Charlie vents to Lucy about his Christmas troubles at her “Psychiatric Help” booth while other known characters such as Sally and Franklin build a snowman among leafless winter trees. Lucy responds to Charlie’s problem by suggesting that he get involved in a Christmas project, like the school play. This brings the viewer to the third window where Charlie Brown directs his peers in a musical scene, with a large piano taking up most of the scene. An interactive element is included in this window; viewers can tap a flat piano keyboard located on the outside of the window, and the piano inside the window will play the same notes.
Another window features Charlie and Linus surrounded by large, bright Christmas trees, but Charlie chooses a poor, withering tree to decorate for their school play. The next scene depicts Charlie complaining about a superficial Christmas contest, while his dog Snoopy blissfully takes part and wins first place. Finally, in the last window all of Charlie Brown’s friends wish him a Merry Christmas as they sing around their Christmas tree. This window is also interactive, as viewers can design their very own character’s facial expression, clothing and hairstyle and insert them into the last scene. Once the viewer finishes her masterpiece, the character will show up in the window with the rest of Charlie Brown’s gang.
Lord & Taylor took a more chic approach to the holidays with the theme “A Few of Our Favorite Things.” New Yorkers can spot Lord & Taylor’s canopy of sparkling trees and bushes from far away. Once under the canopy, people can see Lord & Taylor’s “Favorite Things.” One window presents mannequins clad in the store’s winter clothing with geese adorned in red bows alongside them in a frosty forest. Another displays a sweet shop. Detailed cakes and cupcakes decorated with reindeer and Christmas trees pass by on a conveyor belt and bounce up and down for viewers. In the next window, many gingerbread men joyfully hold up a massive, elegant gingerbread house as more gingerbread men dance on the screen next to Christmas candy canes in the background.
The next window features an elaborate white cuckoo clock. An owl stands in the middle, while rabbits and other forest fowl circle around it. In the background screen, there are many white cuckoo clocks in the same style as the main one. Following this window is the “holiday countdown mansion” window, which displays a mansion with twenty-four windows meant to count down the month of December until Christmas. Each window opens up to show different holiday images, such as a snow angel or red cardinals. The rest of the display includes mini windows featuring penguins, polar bears and snowmen along with more candy canes, cupcakes, and gingerbread houses. The Lord & Taylor window display lights up the streets of Midtown in a polished, delicate way.
Moving uptown, Saks Fifth Avenue takes us around the world with its theme, “The Winter Palace.” The front of the department store is lit up with a huge, Disney-like palace. Similar to Lord & Taylor, this glowing palace is meant to be the initial factor in capturing the attention of people hurrying by. The windows at Saks are the epitome of high fashion in an icy winter world of both reality and fiction. One window depicts the Eiffel Tower sitting in a bed of snow. A mannequin dressed to the nines floats on a vibrant cloud to the left of the tower. Other windows are set up in the same style, with mannequins lying carelessly on clouds over the snowy Taj Mahal, Great Wall of China and Colosseum.
Some windows remove us from the reality of different destinations around the world, and instead transport us into a fairytale world. They feature ice queens brooding thoughtfully among icy chandeliers, dinner tables and cakes. Lifelike animals such as roaring bears and white peacocks are also displayed. The windows exemplify the fashionable name of Saks Fifth Avenue, and blurring the lines between reality and fantasy is what makes Saks’ Winter Palace particularly enchanting.
There are so many captivating holiday window displays around the city that contribute to the overall winter wonderland feel. Every display I got to experience was creative and magical in different ways, so I just couldn’t choose a favorite. I suggest checking them out for yourself to pick your own favorite and to fall even more in love with this spectacular urban winter!