Christmas Window Tour 2021

      Yes, I am still here, just never got round to blogging this past year but I couldn't miss sharing our usual Christmas Eve tour of the holiday decorations in Manhattan.  Many stores didn't decorate this year and some recycled decorations from years past, but there was still enough festivity to enjoy.  First was one of the decorations that the Fifth Avenue Business Improvement District erected by a hotel on 60th street.

Next was a fantasy scene erected in the plaza in front of the Plaza Hotel that included ice, polar bears, birds, and a monkey.

Dior put up some kind of gold, glittery snowflake thingy.

Then it was on to Bergdorf's, which crammed so much stuff into their windows that they were too busy to appreciate.  First, a recognizable tree made of bunnies.

This window was the outlier, being both visually clear and witty.

A side view of the next window that made it easier to comprehend-all those cats.

A black and white window full of dogs.

The next window was a tropical scene of lots of fantasy creatures; this bug caught our eyes.

These trees were another street decoration by the 5th Ave. BID and were cleverly made of strings of ornaments.

Louis Vuitton did windows of neon and wrapped part of the building with a giant Christmas tree image.

Tiffany's is still under construction but put up a few holiday windows.

Chanel added a clever representation of a perfume bottle to its building.

Dolce and Gabbana went for a feast.

A dreidel ornament on the street.

The 5th Ave. BID even put up a street scene in the window of an empty store.

Cartier wrapped its building but I didn't see the panthers this year.

Saks decorated the front of their building but had to turn off the light and sound show because St. Patrick's complained a few years ago that it was unseemly to run it on Christmas Eve.

Saks had children design their windows so each one had the original drawings attached to the glass.

Then it was time to face the madness of the crowds around Rockefeller Center and COVID-19 was not deterring people from admiring the tree.

Not sure Free People decorated its window just for the holidays, but I liked it.

The library decorated Patience and Fortitude with wreathes; Fortitude is shown first and then Patience being bothered by some tourist (for those who don't know him, that is my husband photographing Patience).

This is an apartment building near Bryant Park that always puts up this interesting holiday display.

The skating rink and holiday shops were still open in Bryant Park when we walked by, so we could take photos- usually the park is all dark by the time we get there.

Macy's windows told the story of Tip Toe, the reindeer who had trouble learning to fly but finally managed with help from her friends.

That was the end of the tour.  Even though there were fewer decorations this year because of the pandemic, people still made the best of the season.  In that spirit, best wishes for 2022.

 

 

 

Christmas Window Tour 2020

 Our annual Christmas Eve tour of holiday windows was an on-again, off-again expedition as we faced a weather report of 40-50 mph winds and much rain, but we set off to see if we could beat the bad weather.  As might be expected in this pandemic year, a lot of stores did not decorate for Christmas (partly because they seem to have decided that this was a good time to renovate).  Also, no surprise that there were few people on the streets until you went to take a photo of something.

We started at the Plaza Hotel (with Barney's having closed), which has erected scaffolding for work on its facade but put up wreaths in the windows.  The fountain in front of the Plaza, however, was decorated with a fun scene of oversized ornaments.

The Plaza

Fountain in front of The Plaza

Next was Bergdorf's, which did something different this year.  While they did have a few fashion windows, most of the decoration was sparkly, oversized letters spelling out different positive words.

Don liked the martini purse

The 1970s are back

Bunnies!


Did I mention the 70s are back?

My friend Judith would have loved the eye

This is one of the windows with letters that spell PEACE

The Fifth Avenue Association hired a company to install 10 oversized, lighted "toys" along 5th Avenue to brighten the season; each toy had a code that you could scan to read a story about the display.  The first one we saw was the toy box.

The next was a taxi.  We had waited to take a photo of this one until the Chinese family was done photographing their daughter but she had no intention of leaving the taxi that was just her size; so I took her photo as well.

Tiffany's is doing so much renovation that the store is actually closed and the windows are boarded up; so no Christmas windows on the Avenue.  We walked down the side street to the temporary entrance and found 2 half-hearted efforts.

We noticed that Dior was decorated, so we wandered across the street to check it out.

Remember what I said about the 70s?

Chanel had an interesting window.

I was so excited to find more bunnies that I forgot to notice what store window they in.

As in past Christmases, Trump Tower was just a big, barricaded, black hole among the festive lights. 

Trump Tower with its round-the-clock cops

Don liked the giant stuffed moose at Abercrombie and Fitch.

The balloon toy.

Coach did strings of lights on their second story.

The bear toy was very popular with people who thought it was fun to sit on its legs to have their photo taken.  It was so popular that I didn't have time to frame a good shot of it before the next tourists were trying to break its framework legs.

Cartier had new panthers this year.

Then we were at Rockefeller Center, where access to the tree was severely limited.  Everyone was crowded by the one viewpoint so it was hard to get a good photo but Don did pretty well.  It started raining while we were looking at the tree but we were prepared with umbrellas and hoods.  We had decided to call it a night after we looked at Saks' windows but it stopped raining while we were there, so we kept going.

Saks was next and their theme was This is How We Celebrate and each window was a representation of how people mark occasions. 

 

This fashion window was just interesting.

Next on our walk was a stuffed beagle or hound in the window of a souvenir store that caught my eye.  

The wind picked up to the point that it was a bit difficult to walk but we were so close to finishing that we pushed on.  Next were the lions in front of the New York Public Library.  Fortitude was wearing a mask, although it had slipped down off his nose.  Fortitude had lost his mask because people keep stealing them off the 2 lions for souvenirs.

Fortitude

Patience

Macy's honored essential workers with a theme of  Give, Love, Believe.

That was it for this year: a smaller display but New York is still celebrating the holidays.  May next year be better for all of us.  Happy New Year.