Best Christmas shop windows in the world as retailers bank on festive fever

For retailers, Christmas isn’t as important as it used to be, thanks to Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and sales throughout the year – but this year, the festive season matters a great deal.

Rising inflation and cost of living pressures have squeezed household budgets, and for retailers, ’tis the season of higher business costs, increased wage pressures and supply chain challenges.

Only 67% of retailers in 2022 expect sales growth, compared to 80% in 2021, according to Deloitte. More people working from home doesn’t help, with 57% of retailers saying CBD stores remain below their pre-Covid activity levels.

“Consumer sentiment is soggy,” Craig James, chief economist at CommSec, explained.

Retailers around the world are in the full swing of Christmas after a lacklustre couple of years.

But a gift for retailers this festive season, he said, could come in the form of a “strong job market permitting cautious spending”.

Plus, following two years of Covid restrictions and ahead of more acute pains expected in 2023 as a result of rising interest rates, people just want to get out and about this Christmas.

And spectacle is key to getting them there.

“Consumers are no longer worried about coming out to shop, but they do need to be enticed into the CBDs,” Melissa Dean, wholesale, and distribution sector lead at Deloitte Australia, said.

“Retailers that provide customers with a compelling experience will benefit this Christmas.”

Christmas is the busiest period on the retail calendar, although it has been diluted by major sales events earlier in the year, like Black Friday.

Glitzy decorations, festive music and intricately crafted shopfronts should be on every retailer’s list this December.

A Christmas window can be a portal to an earlier, simpler time, and a powerful way to lure shoppers in to spend.

Here are five of the most beautiful displays in Australia and around the world this season.

Bergdorf Goodman, New York City

The luxury Fifth Avenue department store in Manhattan this year pays tribute to all the creative types who make Christmas special through its theme ‘Magic in the Making’.

Red, green, silver, and shiny, the busy displays are pictures of chaos and togetherness.

This year’s CHristmas windows at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. Picture: Getty

Each is an ode to a different craft, from woodwork to dressmaking, paper sculpture to mosaic, papier-mâché, metal craft and scrapbooking to bookbinding.

It’s old fashioned, decadent, and whimsical, and sure to give shoppers braving the chilly air some Christmas cheer.

This year’s CHristmas windows at Bergdorf Goodman in New York City. Picture: Getty

In a reflection of how important this festive season is for sales, Bergdorf Goodman has put an incredible amount of work into its windows – 10,000 hours over the course of 10 months, in fact.

Selfridges, London

In the heart of London’s West End, Selfridges is using the power of food to get shoppers salivating this year under the tagline of ‘Seasons Feastings’.

Its 15 windows offer surreal and spectacular interpretations of festive foodie moments, with the nostalgia element ramped up to high.

Selfridges’ windows this year are… different.

“Keep your eyes on the pies”, we’re warned, as a jolly Santa holds a giant mince pie. A brussels sprout Christmas tree bursts forth from a silver VW Beetle: ‘brussels sprouts a la car-te’.

There’s also decadent silverware and tables piled high with Christmas club sandwiches and toasty roasties – baked potatoes sporting Santa hats in front of a grate – to give shoppers the warm and fuzzies.

Not everyone is fond of this year’s unique Christmas window displays.

Gone are the literary characters from the pages of CS Lewis and Charles Dickens shoppers had come to expect from Oxford Street, and some London shoppers have been vocal about their displeasure, describing the scenes as not traditional enough.

Galeries Lafayette, Paris

Galeries Lafayette is Europe’s largest department store chain and the grand, century-old store with its art nouveau glass dome in central Paris is known for the best Christmas displays of them all.

This year the flagship store has decided not to showcase Christmas standards but instead take shoppers on a journey through a magical universe.

This year’s windows at the oldest department store in Paris are whimsical and wonderful.

The 11 windows tell the tale of Nordmann, a Christmas tree from the planet Elato, and his trip to Earth, or ‘Planet Christmas’.

Each display shows one of the stages in Nordmann’s adventures: from the spruce-up at Chris’cuts pre-departure, to the journey to Earth in a magic spaceship, and a visit to the Noël Club.

While in the heart of the store, a huge tree comes to life every half an hour as the lights are dimmed.

Shoppers may very well be perplexed by it all, but if it makes them hang around long enough to spend some cash, the store has done its job.

David Jones, Sydney

The annual animated window displays at DJ’s Elizabeth Street flagship store have been an Australian tradition since 1838.

In 2022, the shop is calling on shoppers to explore ‘A World of Wonder’ through the joy of gift giving.

The windows at David Jones in Sydney celebrate the joy of giving. Naturally.

Classic and colourful, there are gifts in floating bubbles, iridescent butterflies, boxes covered in cheeky smiley faces and rainbow swirls.

If anything, the display could be accused of emphasising retail over whimsy, with little of the winter wonderland imagery that transported sweltering Aussies to a Northern Christmas in years gone by.

The store says the message to children is that “a gift can be big or small, or simply an act of kindness. If there’s love in it, a gift will always spark joy and wonder”.

David Jones’ Sydney Christmas windows this year.

The store is also offering families the chance to ‘Breakfast with Santa’ and hear a Christmas story, while a ‘Christmas Shop of Wonder’ pop-up brims with decorations, gift wrap and other seasonal trinkets.

Myer, Melbourne

Kids in Melbourne have been visiting the Christmas windows at Myer’s flagship store on Bourke Street since 1956.

In 2022, the store hopes a colourful celebration of Disney’s 100th anniversary will draw families into town.

The six-window storyboard features a lively variety of scenes from Disney’s greatest hits.

Myer Melbourne’s windows are a departure from tradition.

Mickey and Minnie Mouse soak up the sun in Hawaii, Peter Pan takes Wendy and her brothers on a magical flight across the London night sky, while Mary Poppins rides the carousel with Bert and the Banks children.

It may be old fashioned but it’s also high-tech. Robotics bring the Lion King’s Circle of Life to life while automation allows speedy scene changes, so the coronation of Elsa in Frozen can be repeated 35,000 times throughout the season.

Once shoppers are in the door, the Giftorium and Santaland are also there to make Christmas that much merrier.