A Christmas window is a special window display prepared for the Christmas shopping season at department stores and other retailers. Some retailers around the world have become noted for their Christmas window displays, with some becoming tourist attractions. Christmas windows are sometimes thematic and may include animatronics.
Several retailers in New York City attract shoppers and tourists to their Christmas window displays, including Macy's and Lord & Taylor. [1] Macy's established the practice at its New York City store when it debuted an animated shop window in 1883. [2]
At Christmastime, it is often Spaeth Design that is behind the windows and store displays of many of the nation's major retailers, as well as the lobby displays of some of New York's major hotels and office buildings: the Palace, the Harley, the St. Moritz and the Park Lane hotels, and the Park Avenue Plaza and Gulf and Western office buildings.
— Sandra Salmans, New York Times [3]
AM&A's flagship department store in Buffalo, New York was known locally for its Victorian Christmas windows. Auction internet company Chartitybuzz auctioned the experience of watching Simon Doonan create the Barney's Christmas windows to benefit Christie's Green Auction in 2010 with a final bid received for $60,000. [4] Kaufmann's offered Christmas windows and Santa Land.
Fees were charged to see Lonnie Hanzon's Christmas window display 12/25: A Holiday Store in Omaha in 1987. [5]
Until it closed in 1989, Altman's was known for its Christmas window displays that rivaled Lord & Taylor's, a few blocks up on Fifth Avenue. In Pittsburgh, Horne's was one of the retailers known for its Christmas window displays. In Boston, Filene's would hold a Christmas tree lighting and Jordan Marsh would present a series festive Christmas window displays known as the "Enchanted Village". The window display has since relocated to Boston's Hynes Convention Center, and then to City Hall Plaza.
In Montreal, James Aird Nesbitt was in charge of the traditional Christmas window displays at the Ogilvy department store. In 1947, he commissioned German toymaker Steiff to create two animated holiday scenes known as "The Mill in the Forest" and "The Enchanted Village". The displays included dozens of handcrafted mechanical toy animals and more than a hundred moveable parts. In 2008, the displays were refurbished. [6] Woodward's Department Store in Vancouver's retail shopping district was also known for its Christmas window displays.[ citation needed ]
Tom Keogh designed the annual Christmas windows for Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
The Fenwick (department store) in Newcastle is known locally for its Christmas window display. Since 1971 there has been a Christmas display in the shop's windows, and people come from near and far to look at them.[ citation needed ] There are records going back to the 1930s to indicate that displays have been done. The 2009 theme was a traditional nativity scene, differing from the 2002 aliens theme ("Christmas in Another World") which showed aliens celebrating Christmas and sparked discussion in the letters page of the local papers.[ citation needed ] The Arab dress provoked some debate. The commentators may not have been familiar with the location of Bethlehem.[ original research? ] In 2011, the store held the 40th anniversary of the store's Christmas window display tradition. [7] The store is best known for its extravagant windows, filled with detailed sets and sophisticated moving figures, which appears every Christmas and almost rivals the windows in Liberty's.[ original research? ] The themes are taken mainly from fairy tales and children's stories. The figures move and are accompanied by music.[ citation needed ]
In 2011, Anthony Ausgang designed the Christmas windows for the La Rinascente Department Store in Milan with larger-than-life three-dimensional models of his trademark psychedelic cartoon cats. [8] Bertrand Planes designed Christmas window displays for Le Bon Marché in Paris. [9]
In Australia, the Sydney department store David Jones presents an annual animated Christmas Window display. [10] Traditionally these have often featured snowy northern hemisphere Christmas scenarios, but in 2014 the windows are set in a distinctly Australian summer, featuring beach and rainforest scenes, [11] based on the book "Reindeer's Christmas Surprise" by Australian author Ursula Dubosarsky and illustrator Sue De Gennaro. [12]
In Melbourne, the Myer department store began presenting an annual Christmas window display in 1956, [13] and later added the annual Myer Christmas Parade. Displays have typically included scenes from Christmas related stories such as "The 12 Days of Christmas", A Christmas Carol and How the Grinch Stole Christmas! as well as nativity scenes and scenes from children's stories and fairy tales. For the past few decades, displays have featured animated characters. Uno's Garden was chosen as the theme of the 2007 Myer Christmas Windows in Melbourne and Brisbane, Australia.
The 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street and 1983 film A Christmas Story feature Christmas window displays.
The book cover of the 1916 children's novel Christmas Holidays at Merryvale by Alice Hale Burnett features children peering into a Christmas window.
In the Christian tradition, a nativity scene is the special exhibition, particularly during the Christmas season, of art objects representing the birth of Jesus. While the term "nativity scene" may be used of any representation of the very common subject of the Nativity of Jesus in art, it has a more specialized sense referring to seasonal displays, in particular sets of individual sculptural figures and props that are arranged for display.
A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the 19th century, and permanently reshaped shopping habits, and the definition of service and luxury. Similar developments were under way in London, in Paris and in New York (Stewart's).
Santa Claus parades, also called Christmas parades, are parades held in some countries to celebrate the official opening of the Christmas season with the arrival of Santa Claus who always appears in the last float. The parades usually include themed floats, dancing or marching groups and bands playing Christmas songs. They are moving pageants that typically end near the centre of a city. Often sponsored by department stores, they may reinforce the store's brand recognition during the important Christmas shopping season.
Myer is an Australian mid-range to upscale department store chain. It trades in all Australian states and one of Australia's two self-governing territories. Myer retails a broad range of products across women's, men's, and children's clothing, footwear and accessories; cosmetics and fragrance; homewares; electrical; connected home; furniture; toys; books and stationery; food and confectionery; and travel goods.
The Rich's Great Tree, now the Macy's Great Tree, was a large 70–90-foot (21–27 m) tall cut pine Christmas tree that had been an Atlanta tradition since 1948. As of 2013, the tree has been replaced by a much smaller artificial one in the parking lot, which was then moved back to the roof for 2014. Before ending the tradition in December 2023.
Jordan Marsh was an American department store chain that was headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, and operated throughout New England. It was founded by Eben Dyer Jordan and Benjamin L. Marsh in 1841. The ownership of Jordan Marsh was transferred between several holding companies during its operation, including Hahn Department Stores in 1928, Allied Stores in 1935, and Federated Department Stores in 1988. The brand was retired and most stores were converted into the New York City-based Macy's in 1996.
Westfield Southland is a shopping centre in the suburb of Cheltenham in Melbourne. Southland has a floor area of 129,180m², making it one of the biggest shopping centres in Australia by size. There are approximately 400 retailers in Southland, including Myer, David Jones and Harris Scarfe. According to the Melbourne 2030 Metropolitan Strategy, Southland is recognised as one of 26 Principal Activity Centres. The centre is also one of the most profitable shopping centres in Australia, with an annual turnover of $857.9-million recorded in 2016.
Christmas creep is a merchandising phenomenon in which merchants and retailers introduce Christmas-themed merchandise or decorations before the traditional start of the holiday shopping season, which in the United States is on the day after Thanksgiving. The term was first used in the mid-1980s.
In Christmas folklore and legends, Santa's Workshop is the workshop where Santa Claus and his elves live and make the toys and presents given out at Christmas. The exact location of Santa's workshop varies depending upon local culture, however it is generally believed to be somewhere around or on the North Pole. There are at least eight claimed locations for his workshop. For example, people in Canada send letters to Santa's Workshop at his North Pole location in Canada, with the unique postal code of "H0H 0H0". People in the United States believe the workshop is a sprawling commune located at the North Pole. Some people in the United Kingdom and Finland believe that Father Christmas' Workshop is located in Finland in Korvatunturi, Lapland. In addition to housing the factory where toys are either manufactured or distributed by the elves, the complex also houses the residence of Santa, his wife, companions, and all of the reindeer.
Holt Renfrew Ogilvy, formerly and still colloquially Ogilvy, is a Canadian department store located on Saint Catherine Street West in the downtown core of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It has been owned by the Selfridges Group, which itself is owned by British-Canadian businessman Galen Weston, since 2011. Through this ownership, it is affiliated with the Canadian department store Holt Renfrew and the European department stores Arnotts, Brown Thomas, de Bijenkorf, and Selfridges. The store is the only one of four major west-end retailers in Montreal that still operates with its original name, and is nicknamed the "grande dame of Saint Catherine Street".
John Martin & Co. Ltd, colloquially known as John Martin's or simply Johnnies, was an Adelaide-based company which ran a popular chain of department stores in South Australia. It operated for more than 130 years, from 1866 until its closure in 1998. Johnnies, owned by the prominent Hayward family for the majority of its existence, became an Adelaide icon, responsible for the famous Adelaide Christmas Pageant.
Macy's Herald Square is the flagship of Macy's department store, as well as the Macy's, Inc. corporate headquarters, on Herald Square in Manhattan, New York City. The building's 2.5 million square feet (230,000 m2), which includes 1.25 million square feet (116,000 m2) of retail space, makes it the largest department store in the United States and among the largest in the world.
The Marshall Field and Company Building is a National Historic Landmark retail building on State Street in Chicago, Illinois. Now housing, Macy's State Street, the Beaux-Arts and Commercial style complex was designed by architect Daniel Burnham and built in two stages—north end in 1901–02 and south end in 1905–06. It was the flagship location of the Marshall Field and Company and headquarters Marshall Field's chain of department stores. Since 2006, it is the main Chicago mid-western location of the Macy's department stores. The building is located in the Chicago "Loop" area of the downtown central business district and it takes up the entire city block bounded clockwise from the west by North State Street, East Randolph Street, North Wabash Avenue, and East Washington Street. Field and partners founded their Chicago store in 1852, and first built an expansive shopping emporium on this site in 1868. The 1901 building was the fourth for the department store at this site.
Window dressers are retail workers who arrange displays of goods in shop windows or within a shop itself. Such displays are themselves known as "window dressing". They may work for design companies contracted to work for clients or for department stores, independent retailers, airport or hotel shops.
Myer Christmas Parade was an annual event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia organised by Myer Pty Ltd in conjunction with the City of Melbourne. Attracting a crowd of over 40,000, the parade commenced at the top of Spring Street and ended outside Myer's flagship Melbourne store on Bourke Street. Local newsreader Jennifer Keyte and other celebrities helped televise the Parade through the city though Channel 7 Melbourne. Radio station 3AW also broadcast the parade live.
Light Up Night is a family festival in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania coinciding with the unofficial start of the Winter holiday shopping season. Many retailers in Downtown Pittsburgh remain open late, and street vendors and other concessionaires sell food and give away hot beverages, treats and promotional items. The city is decorated with Christmas lights, trees, among other holiday decorations. On Light Up Night, the skyscrapers and buildings in and around downtown keep their lights on throughout the night, lending to the name. Over 200,000 people attend the festivities.
Reindeer's Christmas Surprise is a book for children created for the Sydney department store David Jones’ animated Christmas Windows for 2014. The David Jones windows are part of a world-wide historic tradition of animated displays created by department stores at Christmas time. Traditionally the David Jones windows have often featured snowy European scenarios, but the 2014 windows are set in a distinctly Australian summer, featuring beach and rainforest scenes. The story, also published as a book, was written for the windows by Australian author Ursula Dubosarsky with illustrations by Sue De Gennaro.
Christmas traditions in Australia, like Christmas in New Zealand, have many similarities to British, Irish, American and Canadian traditions, including traditional Christmas symbols featuring winter iconography. This means a red fur-coated Father Christmas or Santa Claus riding a sleigh, songs such as "Jingle Bells", and various Christmas scenes on Christmas cards and decorations. However, the timing of Christmas occurring during the Southern Hemisphere's summer season has resulted in the development of some local traditions as a result of the warmer weather.
Emporium Melbourne is a luxury shopping centre on the corner of Lonsdale and Swanston streets in Melbourne, Australia. Occupying the former Lonsdale Street site of Myer's Melbourne store, Emporium opened in 2014 following extensive redevelopment. The centre includes a food court, specialty stores and several multi-level anchor retailers, as well as a top floor extension of Myer's Bourke Street store. Emporium forms part of a 188,000 square metres (2,020,000 sq ft) precinct of linked shopping centres in the Melbourne central business district, which also includes the Myer and David Jones city stores, Melbourne Central, General Post Office and Elizabeth Street's The Strand.
Wombat Divine is a 1995 Christmas-themed children's fiction book written by Australian author Mem Fox and illustrated by Kerry Argent. The book, written for children aged three years and above, tells the story of a young wombat who fears he will not be given a part in this year's Nativity play, but is delighted in the end to be chosen for the part of the Christ Child. A 21st anniversary edition of the book was published in 2016.
