2019 Christmas Windows Tour

     This year's tour was a bit sad because many stores are gone: Barney's is going out of business, Lord & Taylor is gone, Henri Bendel's is gone, as well as 4 other stores.  We keep hearing about how well the economy is doing but you couldn't prove it by 5th Avenue.  Many of the remaining stores didn't bother to decorate so the usual tour was much shorter.
     We started at Bergdorf's but their windows weren't as good as in past years.  This was the best of the lot.

The fur nutcracker amused the crowd.

     Tiffany's did a cute series of windows involving mice.

Gucci went tropical.

Dolce and Gabbana went foodie.

The windows of the former Henri Bendel's showed the work of the 5th Avenue Business Improvement District as they hired local artists to make street scenes to fill the empty windows.

The Peninsula Hotel had new decorations, although we aren't sure what they are; the figures look like stylized bellhops playing instruments.

Cartier did their usual wrapped building with panthers.

The Rockefeller Center tree.

Saks did a Frozen 2 theme.

One of the buildings rented window to 4 businesses who decorated 1 window each to publicize their companies; these windows were some of the best decorations.

Hazel Village made a fabric lanscape

Raw Honey

A chocolatier

Either Patience or Fortitude in from the New York Public Library.  It was actually so dark that I didn't have much hope of getting a photo but my new phone came through like a champ.

It was sad to see that this is what the street level of Lord & Taylor looks like as some company ripped out the bottom floor to redo it.  Since We Work is in such financial trouble, I am not sure who is doing the construction.

Macy's was doing a story about a girl who wants to be Santa Clause and so becomes Santa Girl.  Couldn't quite follow the story but the windows were kind of fun.

That was it, so we went home.  I hope you have enjoyed this years abbreviated tour; let's hope next year is more festive.

NYC CHRISTMAS WINDOWS 2014

Because the weather forecast for Christmas Eve was not good, wind and lots of rain, we did our tour of the wonderful Christmas windows in Manhattan on December 23.  First was Barney's.  The theme was "Baz Dazzled Holiday" created by director Baz Luhrmann and wife Catherine Martin, which meant fantastical woodland scenes.

Barney's exterior



Metallic mushrooms and a giant boombox

The next 2 window could only be captured properly with movies.

Still shot of window 2. 

 

 

Movie of window 2. 

 

 

 

Still shot of window 3.

 

 

 

Movie of window 3. 

 

Then it was off to Bergdorf Goodman's and the nearby building that always displays large candy canes.

Bergdorf's theme this year was the arts.  Here are some of our favorite parts.

Sculpture

Dance

 

Music

Theater


The Literature window didn't really grab me until I realized that all of the portraits of the writers were actually done in needlepoint or embroidery.

Literature

Plus a soft-sculpture typewriter by Heidi Hilkin of Charles Butterworth Studio.com

Even the small windows are interesting

The next treat was the window next door at Van Cleef & Arpels.

Van Cleef & Arpels


After that, it was a stop at Tiffany's.

More jewels on Tiffany's building.  The blank spots in the strings of lights are because the lights made patterns.

 

 One of the windows.

The 2 twirling, skating dogs were my favorite part of this window.

Harry Winston decorated their building with their traditional jewels of light.

Then it was down to Rockefeller Center to see the tree.  When we got to the tree, it was dark-no lights!  No one knew why.  We didn't get a photo of the tree without lights because just as Don and I went to take photos of the dark tree, the lights came back on.  Seriously, I pushed the button on my camera and the lights came on.

The Rock Center Tree with lights back on, but the star on top has not been turned on.

I found out later, courtesy of the local news, that the lights had been turned off on the tree as a tribute to Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu, who were murdered on the past Saturday.

Saks building

Our next stop was across the street to Saks Fifth Avenue.  The theme was "An Enchanted Experience" and the windows showed fairy tales transplanted to NYC.

The Wicked Witch selling a poisoned apple to Snow White in Times Square

 

Sleeping Beauty

Rumplestiltskin in the famous, closed City Hall subway stop. 

Red Riding Hood and the wolf

 

Cinderella

The end windows at Saks displayed 2 costumes made by my friend Janet Bloor.  Sadly, I didn't realize they were hers until we got home so I only took a quick photo of the one costume.

costume by Janet Bloor

 

A close-up shot


Next on our tour was Lord & Taylor, whose theme was "On Holiday" with human-like animals and fairies.

The Lord & Taylor designer even included Patience and Fortitude, the lions in front of the new York Public Library's research building.

Our last stop was Macy's, whose theme was "Santa's Journey to the Stars"  showing a boy who receives a magical telescope that lets him see Christmas being celebrated across the solar system.

The boy and his telescope

 

Santa's workshop on Venus

Last minute work under the sleigh

Hmm...a Dalek disguised as a Christmas tree?

 

Earth

Familiar parade

Mars

Jupiter and Saturn

Uranus and Neptune

Although Macy's was open for business 24 hours/day, that was the end for us.  As we headed for home, it was so hard to remember that it was only December 23 and that we wouldn't be opening presents the next morning.  Still, our early window tour was a wise decision because the weather on December 24 was not nice!