Top 4 Christmas Window Displays in New York City

Christmas is a time for snow, joy, happiness, and of course, the famous New York City window displays. Every year, from Thanksgiving through New Years, New York City's luxurious and expensive shops arrange elaborate, lavish displays that tourists and locals alike take the time to admire and photograph.

Since I just moved to the area in July, this year was my first year seeing these well talked about displays. I spent over an hour walking up and down and around 5^th Avenue, waiting for other admirers to move to the window next to me so I could snap a picture.

About halfway through my self-guided tour, it started to snow, which did make the experience all the more magical, but it also made my fingers go numb-it's very hard to take pictures quickly and accurately with gloves.

I was able to see most of the big and famous displays before it got too cold. And here is a list of my top four favorite store window displays.

1. Bergdorf Goodman

Known for it's world-renowned fashion, Bergdorf Goodman had the most impressive displays I saw during my tour. With two buildings across the street from each other, people can get their fill of creative, spirited, holiday-eske, artsy fashion. There were mini-displays in between the main windows, and each one was colorful and featured something wintery, such as scarves or snow. My favorite was the display of a woman in white feathers sitting atop a horse with wings. The horse was standing on two legs, as if signaling window admirers to come look, and it was adorned in a white woven blanket.

2. ZChemists

I'm unfamiliar with this store, but I was very happy when I saw their window displays. My favorite was of a giant, smiling snowman sitting next to an purple oversized stocking. Inside the stocking was a puppet, who looked like one of the puppets from the Broadway show, Avenue Q. As a huge Avenue Q fan-I've seen the show twice so far and memorized all the songs-I was very pleased.

3. Saks Fifth Avenue

I had no real favorites here; they were all incredible. Almost all of the displays moved in some way or another, and they were all very colorful, with multiple mannequins. Saks Fifth Avenue was unique, in that three sides of the building had displays, and there was a velvet rope in front of them so that people could line up and take photos.

4. United Colors of Benetton

This store had a beautiful snowy display. Mannequins were stacked vertically on top of each other, all dressed in white, warm winter clothing. Every accessory and decoration behind them was white like snow, and the windows had snowflakes painted on them. To top it off, fake snowflakes fell from the top of the building to the bottom of the display, to match the real snow falling outside.