Sunday, December 4, 2011

Christmas Sprit: Manhattan's Holiday Spectacle

Manhattan at Chrismastime is a true holiday spectacle.
From the store windows to the trees at the Public Library, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Rockefeller Center to the giant dazzling snowflake that hangs over 57th Street, it's all bigger-than-life.
Over the weekend we made our first pass through this urban Christmas wonderland as we viewed the windows at Macy's, Lord & Taylor and Saks with short stops in between to enjoy the finery along the way.
Yes, Broadway, 7th Avenue and 5th Avenue were jammed with taxis, buses, cars and pedestrians. But who would want to be anywhere else at this time of the year.
As much fun as it all was, we must (sadly) report to you that Macy's and Saks' windows were disappointing this year. In recent years the windows at Saks have become more and more commercialized and this year was no exception as the store shamelessly huckstered designer threads and labels, virtually selling the holiday windows off to big names. Only the tiniest amount of animation was visible and the story the windows told came down to this: "Sell, sell, sell!"
Macy's was slightly better but the windows were chopped up to accommodate plugs for brand and designer names. Of course, I'm not going to mention any of the names here because I'm determined not to give them additional publicity. Inside, Macy's was gorgeous as always with red the dominant color throughout.
God bless Lord & Taylor. This is one store that know how to get Christmas right.
The Lord & Taylor windows show Christmas through the eyes of a child and depict full, whimsical, poignant holiday scenes with much animation and actual children's drawings of their favorite Christmas scenes and memories. So, as you can see below I've chosen the bulk of our New York window photos this year from Lord & Taylor.
Enjoy!

Macy's ground floor, main entrance.


Macy's - can't quite remember what the story was,
Lord & Taylor - traditional animated windows; a must see!

Lord & Taylor.



Lord & Taylor.

Lord & Taylor.

The giant Christmas ornaments on 6th near Rockefeller Center.



After dark - when the city comes alive!
All photos copyright 2011 by Dan Cirucci.

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