Christmas Displays for 2010

Yesterday, I thought I was going to have to work all day. When I found out I didn't have to, I decided to take it as my day to go downtown and take my pics of the holiday displays at the major department stores, specifically Macy's, Lord and Taylor's, Saks 5th Avenue and Bergdorf Goodman - along with anything else cool I spotted along the way. It ended up being a long and very exhausting day, but very satisfying. All four places had wonderful displays for this year, and I took more than 250 pics! Out of all of those, I just can't imagine picking only 5 - 10 to highlight in a post (I try not to put more than that in one post - this post, for example, has 13...so I'm already pushing it...) so I thought I'd split it in to five posts - this first one, which include some general shots I took, and then one for each of the other stores. Hopefully I can get up one each day of this week, but I'll only do that if I don't end up having anything else to post, as I don't want to spam with multiple blog posts in one day. If you want to get a sneak peak, check out the set on Flickr.

First of all, hi!

I couldn't resist snapping this shot of me when I passed this mirror. People kept telling me I looked cold, because I was all bundled up, when in fact I was totally fine precisely because I was all bundled up. :)

My original plan for the day was pretty straight forward: head downtown and aim to be at Union Square around 3, shop at the holiday fair there, and then wander up town passing Macy's on Broadway, then cut over to 5th and walk up to 57th. However, things changed immediately when it occurred to me that I could meet my oldest friend for lunch, and maybe get to finally meet his girlfriend. I contacted him, and initially he said he couldn't come, but then he changed his mind, so I ended up at Union Square at 12:30 instead of 2, which meant I had some time to kill.

First, I shopped the bazaar.

It was about as mobbed as I expected it to be. More disappointingly, it was about as lame as it was last year. I only found one cool booth that didn't have stuff I'd seen at last year's Fair. They have an etsy shop, too, I'll probably link to it at some point. :) Unfortunately, very few of the vendors at the Fair are actually crafts people.

However, this didn't kill enough time, so I went to B&N, and then it occurred to me that I could, with supreme sacrifice, go to the Lion Brand Yarn Store. I know, how dreadful.

They had an AWESOME window display, with these knit penguins and a gigantic knit/crocheted lion on ice skates. I ended up spending a lot of time there and buying a whole bunch of yarn (mostly for my mother, who has promised to make me this (though the pic shows a kid, it actually is an adult pattern) - so I picked up the materials for her. I also grabbed some more of the green heather I need for the Oceans players uniforms, and materials to make a second squirrel, this one in gray. Downside: had to carry the big bag stuffed full of yarn the whole rest of the day.

I was trying to time things that it would be getting dark just as I arrived at Macy's, and it worked out. Just before I got there, I passed through Herald Square.

I couldn't help but feel that Horace Greeley wouldn't have appreciated the boughs of holly in his lap. (Greeley is one of the most famous newspaper editors in the history of the country, he was a major voice for the Republican party/pro-administration during the Civil War - if you're curious, read more on wiki).

My timing was good, and I went to the Macy's windows next. That'll be next post. From there, it was over to 5th Ave. and Lord and Taylor's. It's then a bit of a walk up to Saks 5th Avenue, and I passed this in the window of a vacant store front on the way.


Saks was mobbed as always - it gets a lot of attention cause it's across from the tree. After some debate, I decided that the fact that I have virtually no good pics of the Rockefeller tree was unacceptable, even though the reason I don't is that I hate fighting the crowds, but I thought if I do it this year, I don't have to do it next year if I don't want to. It actually didn't go as badly as I thought it would, though there were tons of people.




My last definite destination was Bergdorf Goodmans, another bit of a walk up town. On the way, I passed Juicy Couture, which had an interesting display, almost all of my pics of which turned out lousy. Then there was Henri Bendel, which I never remembering noticing before.


They had a couple props that struck me as being of particular interest to my fellow crafters.



Doesn't that look a lot like the dolls that Ana Camamiel makes? I thought of her work immediately.

And the Fendi store.

I probably should have framed that one better, but I was getting pretty cold and I'd already waited like 3 minutes for a bus to get out of my way so I could take this pic. :) It has to be remembered, every single place I take these pictures, I have to find my spot, get my camera settings right, and then stand and wait til all the other bystanders get out of the way/walk on by/get bored...it's surprisingly frustrating. :)

I always love the star they hang at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 57th Street. This is one of the better pics I've taken of it, though I think I need to edit out that street lamp...


Finally, when I was finished at Bergdorf, which took a LONG time, I walked up 57th, and got to rectify a mistake I made last year, when a very similar pic to this one didn't turn out and made me sad.


I wasn't done there! I walked up to 76th and Columbus to get a Crumbs cupcake, cause they're the best, and then up to my mom's, to drop off all that yarn...and then I finally got to go home. When all was said and done, I walked 7 miles over about 5 hours. No wonder I'm still feeling beat!

Tomorrow (probably): Macy's window displays!