Happy Guest: Xmas in NYC By Urban Gardens

Hello Happy Interior readers, I’m Robin from Urban Gardens here to share with you the holiday season from my part of the world.

Sparkling lights are glowing everywhere in Manhattan. The city is alive with crowds enjoying the festive Christmas window displays in the shops along Fifth Avenue and all across town. People are ice skating or sipping hot cocoa while watching the skaters glide and twirl across the Rockefeller Center Skating Rink with the giant Christmas tree sparkling behind them. 

Shops are decorated to the hilt, tricked out to create merriment with their yuletide frills.

The windows of the city’s major department stores are always a big production that often include moving parts and music. Bergdorf Goodman, the grand dame of holiday windows, presents five holiday windows inspired by the Jazz Age.

The first,"Tuning Up," features an all-female orchestra and of course everyone is decked out in fashions from the 1940s. "Rhapsody in Feathers," is next with white peacocks and a fan dancer. Then comes "Follies in Miniature," displaying tiny antique mannequins from the era. Moving along, "Canine Daredevils," includes a series of dogs and one actual Alexander McQueen gown. But the big finale, "The Mirror Kaleidoscope," takes your breath away with a bright rotating starburst and two mannequins dressed in custom outfits by designer Naeem Khan.

Bloomingdale's teams up with Cirque du Soleil to present an acrobatic extravaganza in windows depicting scenes from Cirque du Soleil's new film, Worlds Away. Mechanical acrobats fly through the air in colorful costumes and there are interactive windows too where a camera captures the viewers face and they become part of the scene. (That was pretty cool.) 

Partnering with the Brooklyn Museum, Henri Bendel unveils storefront displays harking back to the roaring ‘20s when people partied and frolicked away. The main window replicates the department store's interior of 90 years ago, with mannequins dressed in couture from that era inspired by actual Bendel designs. Inside the store, a two-story gold foil tree is topped with a giant champagne glasses, toast to the season.

Although this New York area has experienced much tragedy in the past two months, the holiday season is all about hope. We are lighting up winter’s darkness, but as we move forward, each new day will bring more light and more hope for the coming year.

Happy Holidays!

Text & Photography by Robin Horton/Urban Gardens   

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