Blame it on my being Canadian, but for years I didn’t think London’s Christmas windows came up to scratch. Lack of investment meant that the best people seemed to be able to do was put mirror balls in the windows, change the gels on the lights to purple, or red, and throw tinsel everywhere. Ok, that’s being harsh, but my childhood memories of being taken to the see the Eatons and Simpsons Christmas windows at Queen and Yonge Street in Toronto are magical. My mother or grandmother would have to help me squeeze to the front of the crowd, where I could have spent an hour spotting all the details – those windows were like mini worlds packed with trains, dancing fairies, you name it, they had it. Once the older women in the family had had enough of standing around in the cold, we would go down to Eatons basement to watch the mini donut machine make some donuts just for me. Hot chocolate with marshmellows completed the ritual. All credit to Selfridges for their Christmas windows this year. Christmas windows c. 2009 are a little different from Christmas a la 1969 — these are certainly for older kids, but they are strong, vibrant, lots of fun and yes of course in these hard trading days… packed with product. Proof that they are working? At 7pm on Sunday night each window on Oxford Street had a crowd of people gazing in. Wonder if they all had a hot chocolate on the way home?
on Nov 11th, 2009 at 10:17 am
I can’t wait to get down to London to check these out, the ones in Harvey Nichols - Leeds, are looking fantastic as well.