Lifestyle

NYC’s 6 merriest holiday windows this season

Dark days call for brilliant distractions. And New York’s biggest stores have stepped up to the challenge — filling their holiday windows with scenes that dazzle the eye, lift the spirit and soothe the soul. And yes, dancing gingerbread men can do that for you.

Twinkling lights and evergreens are up and down Fifth Avenue: Tiffany’s is done up in giant branches, Harry Winston’s swathed itself in enormous faux diamonds, and Henri Bendel’s filled its windows with whimsically attired stuffed mice, none of whom are stealing pizza. Mindful that this is the season for giving, the Gap’s flagship store has a “Good Deeds Machine,” a conveyor belt for delivering socks that you can help send where they’re needed most: our homeless shelters.

So put on your walking shoes, and escape, however briefly, into a window wonderland.

Bergdorf Goodman

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This window features a fortune-telling monkey.Stefano Giovannini
Stefano Giovannini
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A glamorous miner shines in an amethyst cave.Stefano Giovannini
Stefano Giovannini
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754 Fifth Ave., at 58th Street

Seven million Swarovski crystals decorate the figures in Bergdorf’s holiday windows.Stefano Giovannini

Theme: “Brilliant Holiday”

Draws: What would you do with 7 million Swarovski crystals? The geniuses behind BG’s windows lavished them on silvery knights in armor, life-size golden lions and bronze gargoyles. Gaze, too, upon the sea god Poseidon, made up of (fake) pearls; a glamorous female miner chipping away in an amethyst cavern, and — in the window marked “Your lucky day!” — a turban-wearing monkey peering into a crystal ball, surrounded by giant, crystal-encrusted tarot cards and a dazzling wheel of fortune. “Oh my God,” sighed a visitor from Alabama. “I love the bling-iness!”

Don’t miss: The smaller windows in between, one of which, bordered in black, contains a beautiful, black-and-white photo of Paris paired with a simple placard reading, “In Solidarity.”

Bloomingdale’s

Silk roses form the backdrop for a jingle-bells reindeer at Bloomie’s.Stefano Giovannini

Lexington Avenue at 59th Street

Theme: “The Surprise and Delight of the Holidays Through the Senses”

Draws: Smell-O-Vision at last! John Waters’ dream is realized in these six tableaux. Inhale, and you may detect notes of cinnamon, peppermint and some undetermined floral fragrance from designer Jeff Leatham, who’s filled these windows with heaps of (silk) roses and mirrored, multifaceted, Jeff Koons-ian sculptures of golden reindeer and selfie-taking snowmen. There are piped in carols to please the ears, and, outside the windows, faux greenery to tickle your sense of touch and a peppermint-candy dispenser for a taste of seasonal sweetness.

Don’t miss: Having your photo shot at the “Feel the Holiday Spirit” window. Step to the left, hit the snowflake and see yourself hover, however briefly, above the snowmen. An Instagram moment if there ever was one!

Barneys

An ice carver from Okamoto Studio goes to work in a Barneys window, creating penguins and other arctic life.Stefano Giovannini
Tiny cars race around a glowing cityscape.Stefano Giovannini

660 Madison Ave., at 61st Street

Theme: “Chillin’ Out”

Draws: Ice Capades for all — at least, all those who won’t go into photosensitive epileptic seizures triggered by the light patterns in these windows (and yes, there’s a warning sign). The kiddies will love the “Arctic Chase” window, its tiny racing cars manned by madcap penguins careening around a golden city. Culture-mavens will kvell before Dale Chihuly’s glass snowflakes, which change color to the sensuous strains of Debussy’s “Clair de Lune.” The rest of us will simply stare at two windows full of actual ice. Which, come to think of it, is so much prettier when it’s behind glass than on your doorstep.

Don’t miss: The ice carvers in the northernmost windows, who — sometime between noon to 7:30 p.m., depending on the day and their break schedule — turn blocks of ice into penguins and polar bears before your eyes.

Lord & Taylor

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Lord & Taylor gets ginger-bready for the holidays with cookies, and windows showing their other favorite things.Stefano Giovannini
Stefano Giovannini
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Stefano Giovannini
Stefano Giovannini
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424 Fifth Ave., at 38th Street

Theme: “. . . A Few of Our Favorite Things”

Draws: L&T’s taken it to the streets — spreading the joy all over its Fifth Avenue sidewalk, above which it’s erected an evergreen canopy brimming with lights. “You walk in here, and it’s like a winter wonderland!” a passer-by said in unmistakable Long Island-ese. Yes, and that was before she noticed all those penguin-capped cupcakes; the chorus line of gingerbread men hauling a gingerbread house; and a giant cuckoo clock populated by forest creatures. The final window features a mansion whose doors open up to reveal one beautiful wintry scene after another: a red cardinal on a frosty branch, a boy making snow angels, etc.

Don’t miss: The video backdrops in each window, especially the one of the dancing gingerbread man, who pirouettes across the screen and gives us a sweet little final bow.

Macy’s

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Charlie Brown and his pals have found a home for the holiday's in Macy's windows.Stefano Givoannini
Stefano Giovannini
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Stefano Giovannini
Stefano Giovannini
Stefano Giovannini
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34th Street at Herald Square

Theme: “A Charlie Brown Christmas”

Draws: It’s 1965 all over again as Macy’s re-creates the sound, sight and soul of the original TV movie. Six big windows — the first framed like a giant TV set — follow the Peanuts gang as they gear up for the holidays, while Charlie Brown struggles to get with the program. “I just don’t understand it,” he tells Lucy, at her psychiatric help stand (and, yes, it’s still 5 cents). “Instead of feeling happy, I feel let down.” The familiar voices and visuals of the original, along with that great, jazzy Vince Guaraldi score, can’t help but make you smile. A few windows are even interactive — one lets you press the keys of Schroeder’s “magic” piano.

Don’t miss: A large version of Charlie Brown’s woeful little tree, drooping under the weight of its ornament, atop Macy’s awning.

Saks Fifth Avenue

Saks goes sexy in one of its Winter Palace windows.Brian Zak

Brian Zak
611 Fifth Ave., at 49th Street

Theme: “The Winter Palace”

Draws: Six windows with animated scenes of snow-covered wonders of the world, including the Great Wall of China, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and Rome’s Colosseum with a gladiatrix hovering above it. So much for the G-rated entertainment. The next dozen or so windows along Fifth and unfurling onto 49th Street take us to “the Winter Palace” — a kind of “Frozen” for the S&M set. Pouting mannequins preen beneath crystal chandeliers, frown into their furs and slump onto sofas. At last, a man in a black tux appears, and the final window hints at a threesome. That’s some palace!

Don’t miss: The giant bear in the first Winter Palace window. Looming over an ice princess dressed like Lady Gaga — all icy triangles — he clutches a cigar in his massive paw. A metaphor for Russia, or a stand-in for Donald Trump? Let your imagination be your guide.