Holiday Season NYC, Part 5 - Holiday Windows

New York is justifiably famous for its flagship department stores. And one of the annual events is the windows that they unveil during the holiday season. On the busy streets of Manhattan, an attention-grabbing window is seen by thousands upon thousands of people each day. Windows are very valuable marketing space. And the stores use this space to maximum advantage. And we used their efforts to our maximum advantage by taking a look at pretty much all the major stores this year.

Each store has their unique themes and design values. But all of them help to draw customers and put those who see them in the holiday spirit. Whenever we were in the neighborhood of a major department store we took the opportunity to browse their window displays. It was fun to see the variety. It's hard to identify a pure favorite. I liked each store to at least some extent. Here are some of the highlights.

The Macy's flagship on 34th Street has a large set of windows along two streets. It's the biggest department store in the world, after all. One set of windows was modern in terms of lighting and mechanical elements but pretty traditional in terms of theme. The other set of windows was completely retro. Here are some photos from Macy's:

  
Another great set of windows was at Bergdorf Goodman. Their designs were less whimsical and more serious. Each of their windows was themed around a cultural institution in the city. The botanical garden was featured in one window, the Museum of Modern Art in another, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Brooklyn Art Museum, New York City Ballet, and so on. Here is the Philharmonic window:

Saks 5th Avenue may have some of the most famous windows in a city full of famous store windows. The theme this year was Snow White. I took several photos, and you can see the Little Lady wanted to stay and draw the last window despite the cold:

In addition to the windows pictured above, Bloomingdale's had a circus theme that was not as compelling as the others. Lord & Taylor had a modern aesthetic with classic holiday themes. Again, these windows were not quite as nice as the others, but were still very beautiful especially at night.

It was great to be in New York during the holidays to see the fun windows. There simply isn't anything like being in this city in the run-up to the New Year.