Manhattan 2019: Christmas Lights and Window Shopping

Given our love of live theatre, a quick trip to New York City has become an annual event over the past few years.  This year we repeated an itinerary that we first executed in 2012, by visiting Manhattan in early December so that we could marvel at the city’s impressive Christmas displays.  Wandering up and down the major midtown streets including 5th, Madison and Lexington Avenues, we saw shimmering lights and decoration-ladened trees and wreaths everywhere we turned.  Most of the stores and hotels are adorned with festive decorations that ranged from witty and charming to elaborate and overwhelming.

The four major department stores in the area (Macys, Bloomingdales, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks) lead the charge with vibrant, visually intricate and sometimes technically complex displays spanning their multiple store-front windows.  Barneys used to have a good window too, but as they in bankruptcy there was nothing to be seen. We noticed that there were more vacant retail spaces this year - part of the changing nature of retail due to the internet I suppose.

Flying into New Jersey Airport and taking the train into Penn Station, the first store we came across was Macy’s.  Playing up on its starring role in the 1947 classic holiday movie “Miracle on 34th Street”, the windows on one side of the building permanently exhibit vintage vignettes from the tale.  A series of six windows at the other end of the building provide an updated 21st century spin on the “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” story, filled with an explosion of sights, sounds and motion.  In this version, self-empowered Virginia wants to be Santa Claus herself and is dubbed “Santa Girl”.   These windows feature shiny chrome-covered Santas and elves that resemble floats from the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, psychedelically coloured neon lights, automation, and interactive games.  In one window, when you pat the nose of Virginia’s dog Willow, she scratches her ear with her hind leg.

The last three windows include robotic arms that pick up and deliver gifts from Santa’s truck, an interactive game where you can grab a steering wheel to drive Santa’s truck along a road filled with presents causing lights to burst each time you hit a gift, and a camera that you can pose in front of to take the ultimate selfie.  For several seconds, multiple images of your head decked in a Santa hat are displayed in round kaleidoscope windows, turning each participant into Santa Claus while perpetuating the message that “We all have Santa’s spirit in our hearts”.

The decorations continue inside of Macy’s, where big spinning balls hang from the ceiling, highlighting the mottos “Believe”, “Dream” and “Imagine”.   We had fun checking out the toys in the FAO Swartz Toys & Games section found within the department store including the iconic piano dance mat that was featured in the 1988 Tom Hanks comedy “Big” and a giant Lite-Brite panel.  We also spotted other cute items including a distressed gingerbread man ornament missing a foot, a bag full of lumps of coal and Prosecco Pong (which sounds like a waste of good Prosecco!).

Next we moved on to Bloomingdale’s, whose windows pay tribute to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.  They feature a rocket ship blasting off, astronauts and “Out of This World” aliens dressed in flowing robes.  Not to be outdone by Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s also has several high-tech robotic displays.  In one, robotic arms play on a xylophone from a choice of three Christmas carols while another employs a series of robotic arms to decorate a Christmas tree, passing a golden ornament from arm to arm until the final one gently places the decoration onto the tree.  Bloomingdale’s also has a selfie station that projects a huge blown-up image of your face onto the back of one of the display windows.

Inside Bloomingdale’s are a set of elegantly stylized, “avant-garde” interpretations of the 12 Zodiac symbols.  We saw the water jugs held by Aquarius, the ram horns of Aries, the claws of Scorpio, the half man-half horse of Sagittarius, the fish tails of Pisces and the crab imagery of Cancer.  They were all so beautiful that I regret that we did not have time to wander around and find all twelve.  We also spotted some whimsical beaded purses shaped like a box of French Fries, an ice cream bar and a cupcake.

Bergdorf Goodman’s party-inspired displays present scenes of celebration and revelry where the figures are rotated outward at a 90 degree angle so it appears that you are standing from above looking down upon the images.  One diorama shows two ladies in ball gowns playing chess on a small board while sitting on top of a larger board with giant chess pieces all around them (how meta!).  There is also an Art Deco inspired scene depicting party-goers in deep conversation while seated around a gramophone, a green-toned image of a man surrounded by wild animals as well as large playing cards, and a purple-hued window that portrays the shops on 5th Avenue like a board game.  Another window features a giant pinball machine with flashing lights and moving parts.  A giant nutcracker (from the Nutcracker ballet) can also be found in one of the windows.  The decorations inside Bergdorf are much more subdued, going for an elegant monochrome feel with its Christmas tree and ornaments all in grey and white tones.

Before arriving at Saks, the final of the big four department stores, we passed by Rockefeller Centre to see the giant Christmas Tree.   The lighting of this tree is a momentous occasion for New Yorkers, as we found out when we were inadvertently caught in the crush of people swarming towards Rockefeller Centre for the lighting ceremony, many hours before it was supposed to take place.  Just walking several blocks along 5th Avenue from 50th Street back to our hotel on 45th Street became a nightmare as we were herded through winding crowd control barriers at every intersection.  We had not planned on watching this event in any case, but after this experience, we never intend to try in the future.  By the next day, the crowds were gone and we had easy access to the tree although after all that hype, it was underwhelming.  I felt like we saw many more beautifully decorated trees through Manhattan.  Much more impressive is the massive castle-themed light display at Saks that covers the entire multi-level storefront along 5th Avenue.  They shine so brightly that we saw them from over a block away.  In terms of showy, gigantic and bright in-your-face bling, Saks wins the decoration war by a mile.

At the base of this light display are six windows dedicated to the movie Frozen 2.  The scenes depict images of Elsa as she journeys through the enchanted forest, encountering the four spirits of nature—wind, fire, water and earth.  Also featured are Olaf the snowman, Elsa’s sister Anna and Kristoff the ice harvester with his pet reindeer Sven.  Saks is offering exclusive holiday products inspired by the film and had Broadway star Idina Menzel (who plays Elsa in the movies) perform during the unveiling of the windows.

In addition to the major department stores, many other shops and restaurants in the area joined in with their own displays that blend Christmas cheer with the marketing of their products.  I liked the furry creatures at Artzia that reminded me of characters from a Dr. Seuss book, the little mice hauling jewelry at Tiffany’s, the two giant red teddy bears sharing an intimate table outside of Nello Italian Restaurant, the sparkly bejeweled cougar atop Cartier’s flagship  in store, the Louis Vuitton store wrapped up like a giant present, and the Santa chilling out midst of florescent plastic palm trees (not sure which store).

At Christmas time, Bryant Park (spanning 40th to 42nd Streets and 5th to 6th Avenue) turns into a winter wonderland.  It has a giant Christmas market with over 170 shopping kiosks and food vendors along with a lovely 17,000 square foot skating rink with the New York skyline in the background and a big tree that rivals (and in my mind is nicer than) the one at Rockefeller Centre.  On sale are all types of crafts and souvenirs ranging from kitschy to artsy.  You can get a doggy Christmas ornament in the breed of your pet, and have his/her name etched on it and there were truffles intriguingly titled “No Chewing Allowed”.  I was really tempted by a mug featuring extremely cute alien-like creatures made by a husband and wife team named “Kudu Lah” until I recalled the cupboard jammed full of mugs that we have back home.

While we were cruising the Manhattan streets looking for Christmas decorations, we also encountered many stores with cool, non-yuletide related displays.  One of the best was at the designer handbag store Coach, where artist Billie Achilleos has created a 12-foot tall dinosaur that they nicknamed “Rexy”, made from over 400 Coach handbags and hardware.  The work reminded us of pieces by Canadian Indigenous artist Brian Jungen who makes totem poles out of golf bags, indigenous masks out of Nike shoes and an enormous orca whale made out of white plastic stacking chairs. At FAO Swartz’s flagship store in Rockefeller Centre, Rich was excited about the toy version of a Jaguar E-Type (or “the yellow car” as I called it).  In the window of a store on 57th Street (might be Ippolita Boutique?), we saw the most awesome mannequin busts, made entirely out of thick coiled rope.  Just off of Times Square, there were huge snow globes featuring Broadway shows including Wicked, Ain’t Too Proud and Dear Evan Hanson.  We saw the creepiest cat-inspired purses at Kate Spade in honour of the upcoming Cats movie, which is probably appropriate since the cats in the trailer of that film are really creepy as well.  At the novelty shop PIQ in Rockefeller Centre, I found my souvenir for the trip—a Christmas rubber chicken dressed like Santa which makes a noise when you squeeze it that could rouse the dead.  Rich regrets letting me buy this as he is now regularly awakened by the squawking bird which I have named Arthur (for no particular reason).  Finally in the Swatch store on 45th Street, we saw some giant Swatch wall clocks including a cow themed one that my cow-enthusiast friend would have loved.

Christmas in Manhattan is magical as the city really knows how to “Deck the Halls” and the trees and the lobbies and the store windows.  It is an experience that should not be missed.