Older DUers: Remember those great department store window displays at Christmas?

[Brigid]

Back then, there were actually department stores in downtown areas. We used to go to Columbus OH to see them.

[graywarrior]

1. Yeah, they were awesome

My parents would take us down town to see them all.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Of course, many cities don't have vital downtowns anymore, they have malls.

So I'm afraid there are fewer opportunities to see these as there once was.

I believe Macy's and Bloomingdales, etc., still have theirs in NYC, Chicago, SF, etc.

[Sanity Claws]

17. Don't forget Lord & Taylor in NY

They still do a great Christmas window display.

[NYC_SKP]

19. YES!

I was trying to recall the name and it wasn't coming to me.

[elleng]

35. My (and my family's) favorite NY department store,

still have good stuff (in DC,) reliable, good taste that suits me. Haven't seen their window displays recently, but not surprised.

[dballance]

3. Yep, before malls!

We used to go see them every year.

[femmocrat]

4. Yes, we always went to see them.

We were mesmerized.

[Downwinder]

5. Used to go all round the block looking at Field's windows.

[Brigid]

6. We used to do that at Lazarus.

[UncleYoder]

15. We did too.

Then up to the sixth floor to see Santa!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

7. I remember going to Hudson's in downtown Detroit

but I was too young to appreciate it.

The windows were good, the elevators were interesting, with actual operators announcing the floors.

We'd have lunch in the store's restaurant.

But for a kid, it was just as bad as going to church. Boring.

[CTyankee]

13. "3rd floor, Lingerie. Bras half off."

that old corny joke about elevator operators...

[angstlessk]

8. In Norfolk VA it was Snyders...with Santa..and wooden floors

and bins full of toys...it was fun for sure.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. Yep. We'd take the train into town to look at Fields and some others.

[rug]

10. The big stores in NYC are still doing it.

[madrchsod]

11. yup...

and there were people in those stores that actually wanted to help you and god forbid, try to sell you what you wanted. back when sales people worked on commission and made a decent living...god i`m getting old!

[anasv]

12. another reminder of the decline and fall of civilization

like the disappearance of lunch counters at Woolworth's, with their grilled cheese sandwiches or three decker sandwiches with those toothpicks in them, and root beer floats.

[B Calm]

14. In the 1950's it was Meis Brothers dept. Store in Danville, Illinois.

[MerryBlooms]

16. Chicago- Macy's has wonderful holiday windows and of course the Great Tree.

[Trailrider1951]

18. Hey, I grew up in Columbus

and remember shopping at Lazarus' Department Store downtown during the Christmas season. I lived there until about 1973, then moved to Athens to attend OU. Hi, neighbor!

[Brigid]

30. My mother was born and raised in OH.

I still have relatives there. We lived in Dresden and Coshocton while my siblings were growing up. I live in IN now, so I guess we're still neighbors

[Wait Wut]

20. Marshall Field's

I've been having a rough time this year and I keep remembering my grandmother taking me downtown to see the displays. The best were at Field's.

The only good thing about Chicago in winter is the holiday season.

[grasswire]

22. best wishes, then,for a better 2014

Vitamin D can help northerners survive a winter better. I hope you are well.

[Wait Wut]

36. Thank you, so much, but...

...I live in Arizona, now. There are no solutions for surviving here.


I just miss family. I wish you the very best in 2014, grasswire.

[Madam Mossfern]

21. We used to make a day of it

Catch the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall Christmas special, walk Fifth Avenue and marvel at the displays, catch the Christmas Tree and skaters, and finish the day off at Mamma Leone's.

I remember my matching wool coat and hat and leggings, a muff and my socks sliding down the back of my shoes (blister city!) Heaven forbid you go anywhere without dressing up for it.

Thanks for that memory!

[HereSince1628]

23. And the city strung lights across the streets!

My hometown of 30K people, had 4 department stores, 3 of them always had Christmas windows...

The Sears store converted it's tire showroom into a toy store and had window displays that incorporated toys, though I don't remember Red Ryder BB guns

[MrScorpio]

24. Hudson's in Downtown Detroit

That's where Santa was

[dixiegrrrrl]

25. Back in the 50's....it seems.

They were breath taking displays, at least to us kids who were 10 and under.
In Seattle the fancy store was Bon Marche.
I think Penny's at the time was also considered a decent store.

waiting to go see the store windows was a big deal, since there was only one car in the family, so that usually meant
Sat. night.

i also remember clutching the incredibly rich sum of 2.00 and going to the 5 and 10 (Woolwoths) to
buy presents for the family.
A huge and probably ugly ashtray for my Mom, some comic books and maybe a toy car ( sorta like hotwheels) for
my younger brothers. And the inevitable aftershave for the old man.
One year I scored a ceramic black panther, who was posed in a long crouch, for the top of the tv set.
Mom musta liked it, it stayed on the tv for a few years.

the tv top HAD to have something on it.
Usually a doily, a ceramic figure, and maybe a small lamp used as a nightlight after the tv was off.
Anyone remember that????

[liberal N proud]

26. You might like this...

http://castlenoel.com/


conveniently located outside of Cleveland and Akron in beautiful downtown Medina, Ohio. We are less than one block south of the historic and shopping-centric Medina Square.

[arcane1]

27. There was a huge mechanical/motorized display at Miller & Rhodes (or was it Talheimers?)

This was in Richmond VA in the early 1970's. I couldn't WAIT to check it out every year

[haele]

28. Loved the Bon Marche windows in Seattle.

They had an O or S gage train that ran the entire length of one set of windows through hills and a holiday village that looked suspiciously like the alpine town of Levenworth (other side of the Cascades), and animatronic displays of Santa's workshop.
I vaguely remember walking through downtown Berkley and in Santa Maria in the 1960s looking at the displays in the big picture windows at the major stores along the main roads like Woolworths, J.C. Penny's, the Green Stamp retailer...

Haele

[Brigid]

29. Green Stamps!

I remember those!

[haele]

31. Green Stamps were cool!

The storefront in Santa Maria where you could trade them in at for the items had some really nifty displays; the "kitchenware" section looked like a kitchen, there was a kid's bedroom with toys on shelves, a gardening item section that had plastic potted plants, a "fence" and fake grass, the camping items section was set up like a campground. You went to the display area, found the display item you wanted, copied down the number and took it and your stamps to the cashier. They'd go in the back and get your item for you.
I was only six at the time, and I don't remember if you could also pay cash and buy something, but I definitely remembered handing over long strips of stamps to the cashier after romping around in the kids section for my birthday gift...
After that, we went to the A&W and got some burgers and a big order of rootbeer in a cardboard cone looking container that was a great "megaphone" playtoy after all the rootbeer was gone.

Haele

[Ron Obvious]

32. Remember the electric trains?

I don't know how common this was, but the department stores where I grew up always had electric trains with the power connected to an aluminium hand on the inside of the shop window. If you put your hand on it from the outside, the trains would run. When you removed your hand, the train would stop.

Happy memories of a simpler time.

[Iterate]

33. The online Department Store Museum

Great site, even the comments are good. From the days before cars killed the downtown store -and they were all closed on Sunday's until the mid-60's.
I don't see many window displays though. Scroll down for your city.

http://departmentstoremuseum.blogspot.de/2010/05/welcome-to-museum.html
http://www.departmentstorehistory.net/index.htm

[TorchTheWitch]

34. wow, I'd forgotten all about them!

I loved them. We used to go to the mall to see them every year. That was way back when the King of Prussia mall was about 1/4 of the size and before they covered all the stores with a roof. Then it was over to see the rude parrot to teach it more curse words and pitch pennies in the fountain while the parents went into the round newspaper store. They used to have an outside store that was a round building and had newspapers from all over the country and around the world. Once they got rid of the comic book section we favored the rude parrot and trying to steal change out of the fountain.

[Digit]

37. I remember my Dad taking me to see the mechanical Christmas displays

in downtown Washington at Woodies and Hechts.

It was always so magical to me as a young girl.