Holiday Season 2014

West 58 street near 5th avenue

There is nothing more magical than the streets of New York City during the holidays. The decorations are everywhere - whole buildings are wrapped in bows.  Every year in holiday season New York City is converted  into a beloved holiday destination with celebrations throughout the City’s five boroughs.
At the end of November  major shops  transform their window displays into miniature winter wonderlands.  A combination of art, design, sound engineering, animation, fashion, marketing and whimsy have helped make the displays an integral part of the holiday season .

Harry Winston on 5th Avenue - you can read about
the store in my post 'Harry Winston, King of Diamonds'

Windows on 57 Street

Some of the most famous windows you can find are at the department stores of Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord and Taylor, Bloomingdales, Bergdorf Goodman, and Macy’s.  From classic holiday tunes to sculpture, the big New York stores hope their beautifully designed Christmas windows will attract millions of onlookers and customers.
Macy’s was the first department store in New York to introduce holiday window displays    in the early 1870s.  Lord & Taylor was the first department store to display animated Christmas windows.
Until a few years ago attractively decorated holiday displays were enough to draw the attention of   customers. In more recent times due  to the increased competition  , the design of the holiday windows is  a year-long race that  involves hundreds of people.  It takes between nine and eleven months on average for a store to design its holiday windows.  
Approximately five  million visitors expected in New York  during holiday season. 

Atrium at Time Warner Center (Columbus Circle)
 You can read about Time Warner center in my blog

The  windows design is the  opportunity to draw in shoppers during   the most crucial time of year for sales. 

New York is one of the world’s great holiday destinations.  The holiday season is my favorite time of the year    in the city!    Last year I started the tradition of publishing  posts about the   holiday season  in New York. This year I'd like to continue what  I started a year ago.
 I know  that not everybody is as lucky as me to be able to spend several hours in Manhattan just walking form one window to another .    Those who can't make it to the Big Apple can still get a taste of what Tiffany & Co., Macy's, Henri Bendel, Bergdorf Goodman and others are showcasing this holiday season. 

 I will make pictures.- a lot of pictures    I'll try to show you as much as I can!   For the convenience  I created a tag 'Holiday season 2014'  to label all posts related to  it. 

The UNICEF Snowflake

The huge snowflake of lights  above the intersection at Fifth Avenue and 57th Street is the first sign of the upcoming Holiday Season.  This snowflake was first introduced in 1984.  Since 2002 it  was dedicated to United Nations Children's Fund  (UNICEF) that provides long-term humanitarian and developmental assistance to children and mothers in developing countries. By 2005 UNICEF received a new snowflake, designed in Germany and created with Baccarat crystals.  The snowflake is 23 feet wide and 28 feet tall, sporting 16,000 crystal prisms. It is the largest outdoor chandelier in the world.
Crystal Snowflake was  designed by Ingo Maurer, the artist  from Munich, Germany . One of his lamps ,"Bulb" made in 1966 is in the collection of Museum of Modern Art in New York.