Lord & Taylor’s Animated Windows Celebrate Holiday Scenes

As the New York City tourist season is now in full effect, here’s a gentle reminder to muscle your way through the crowds to see Lord & Taylor’s awe-inspiring window displays.

Located at 424 Fifth Ave., the merchant’s scenes create feelings of nostalgia with dancing gingerbread men, peppermint candies, snow-covered trees and tiny houses dressing up displays and hopefully luring sidewalk voyeurs into the store to shop.

This year marks the 78th that the flagship Fifth Avenue store has created and shared noncommercial (no sold placements!) holiday windows with patrons (though interior store displays do feature sponsored brand collaborations).

Lord & Taylor’s window displays take guests on “on a state-of-the-art journey of a Few of Our Favorite Things, portraying four animated scenes of warm and comforting holiday memories,” the retailer tells the press. Also of note: 500,000 people will pass the windows daily between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and more than 8 million customers visit the store. A team of 50 people created the windows over nine months, and the displays are constructed off-site and are then “installed and finished in the basement of the Fifth Avenue flagship,” the brand continues. “In the days leading up to the unveiling, they are raised into the street-level windows on hydraulics—a unique feature of the 101-year-old landmarked building.”

Get close-ups below, or see them firsthand if you’re already in the city.

A gingerbread kingdom with a Victorian-inspired gingerbread house surrounded by dancing gingerbread men

An ornate holiday mansion has 24 windows counting down the days to Christmas, each opening to reveal an iconic New York City holiday image and a special surprise when all 24 open.