urbanSTL

Didn't St. Louis Centre stay open until 8PM at some point on holiday weekends, i.e. between Thanksgiving and Christmas?

MACY'S HOLIDAY FESTIVAL OF LIGHTS



Nov. 21, 2007, 5 p.m.





Macy's sponsors the annual St. Louis tradition that marks the official kick-off of the holiday season with the illumination of the downtown St. Louis city lights and festivities in Kiener Plaza. Santa will lead the guests to the downtown St. Louis Macy's store for fun activities for the whole family.





MACY'S HOLIDAY WINDOW UNVEILING



Nov. 21, 2007, 6:45 p.m.





Immediately following the Festival of Lights, guests will be led back to the Macy's downtown store to unveil the holiday windows. Each season, the model train club, American Flyer S. Gaugers, assembles an elaborate model train display for all to enjoy. The display tradition dates back to 1988. Almost 19 years later, club members and Macy's carpenters carry on the tradition. Buildings in the display create a local feel for the St. Louis area.

Interestingly, I think that train display was established around the same time that Famous-Barr discontinued Santaland in the auditorium along with the practice of decorating all the storefront windows. Still, it's a very cool display, and we literally have to drag my train-obsessed toddler away from it every time he sees it.



I wish Macy's would decorate every window, but it's still an improvement.

the illumination of the downtown St. Louis city lights and festivities in Kiener Plaza.

hmm, no mention of a CHRISTMAS tree. How cute... I love all of the "inclusiveness" of the "festival of lights" concept, yet it's funny that it would "include" a lot more people that celebrate the season with a Christmas tree.. I thought I saw something like 70-80% of people have a christmas tree... whatever.... and i'm agnostic..



So, back to Macy's. I think everyone on this board should buy at least ONE Christmas present, oops, Holiday present at the downtown Macy's this season. I'm planning on it this weekend.

JCity wrote:I think everyone on this board should buy at least ONE Christmas present, oops, Holiday present at the downtown Macy's this season.

A great idea.

^+2

Are there any white and blue lights or other Jewish symbols present? I find it amusing that the phrase "Festival of Lights" is synonymous with Chanukkah, yet the only lights present will most likely be green and red. Of course people should be able to openly celebrate Christmas in private enterprise. But why call it a "holiday celebration" if the only symbols are Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and red and green lights? Just call it a Christmas celebration already! It's hypocritical to pretend you're being inclusive when you actually aren't.



Isn't liberal and cultured St. Louis supposed to value diversity? Not really, we just pretend.

It's probably an effort to make Jews feel comfortable celebrating christmas.

^ [sarcasm]Then maybe the city leaders should just recruit the Jews for Jesus organization to pay a visit.[/sarcasm] They don't make me feel comfortable but rather insult my intelligence. If you want to make me feel more comfortable, be more culturally inclusive rather than play rhetorical games.

Ha! Eehhh...awkward. It's more of a loose association than an organization.

The organization is called, "Christmas In St. Louis." They should just rename it, "Macy's Christmas." Just be honest with everybody and not insult our intelligence, eh? Ref: http://christmasinstlouis.org/who.html

I generally prefer root canals and long lines at the DMV to reading Deb Peterson's column, but this is good news worth sharing:

Deb Peterson wrote:GOODWILL: Macy's is planning to restore the Christmas tradition of animated holiday window displays in its downtown store this season. "The Magic of Macy's" will unfold window by window along Olive Street beginning Wednesday at 6:45 p.m. and remain on display through Jan. 6.



The story that will be depicted is "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," says Laura Rutenis, senior marketing veep for Macy's Midwest. The tale will unfold with vignettes along five windows on Olive. The vignettes will feature elaborate sets with moving characters and detailed scenery that depict the story of Virginia O'Hanlon writing the New York Sun newspaper in 1897 for an answer to her question.



Santa Claus and other special guests will be on hand to unveil the window displays and kick off the holiday season at Macy's. The store will also continue the tradition of the model train, which will be displayed in the window at the corner of Seventh and Locust streets.

After years of little holiday excitement at Famous-Barr, I was pleased to see Macy's decorate the windows of the downtown store with Christmas trees decorated with ornaments and goodies from local sports teams and civic institutions last year. I'm even happier to see them take it one step further this season by bringing animated holiday displays to the downtown store!

The news gets even better... Macy's published more details about Wednesday evening's celebration in Sunday's Post-Dispatch. Apparently the downtown store will be open until 9 p.m. on Wednesday, and there will be entertainment on the first five levels of the store throughout the evening.



Also on Wednesday evening, parking in the Macy's garage at Seventh and Pine streets is free after 4 p.m. I'd say the window displays will be a must-see for those of you with children. For those of you without, I'd say stop by before you visit the bar(s) of your choice and do some holiday shopping! I'm just excited that the store will be open late and Macy's appears to be pulling out all the stops to make the holiday season special at the downtown store again!

shadrach wrote:314, I'm impressed with your patronage of Macy's (downtown flagship shopping.)



If I still lived there, I'd follow your example and attend, shop and have French Onion soup. Keep up the good fight!

Hey, I do what I can. I try to shop the downtown store as much as possible, but I still wind up at the Galleria or West County for the selection sometimes. Macy's has made incremental improvements in the merchandise mix downtown, but they have a long way to go before they can match the brand offerings and selection of the two aforementioned suburban locations, or even locations like Chesterfield Mall, or St. Clair Square. It's about on par with South County or Crestwood, for what it's worth.



I think we'll see additional improvements to the downtown store down the road as Mercantile Exchange stores open nearby, and as some of the weaker suburban stores are shed from the local roster. (I'd be surprised if Crestwood and Jamestown are open in five years, and if the Alton store hasn't been replaced by one in Edwardsville by that point. And the transformation of Northwest Plaza into Lindbergh Town Center will hopefully be complete by then, with Macy's remaining as an anchor.)



I haven't heard anything about the restaurants being open tomorrow night, but I wish they would. I can't get enough of that Famous Onion Soup after all these years.

If you're going to be shopping on Friday or Saturday, I highly recommend the downtown Macy's. I have to work on the Friday after Thanksgiving every year, so I always stop in to do a little shopping on that day - it's usually more crowded than usual, but nothing compared to the suburban stores.



Stop in, pick up some gifts, have a nice lunch somewhere downtown - make an afternoon out of it. :biggrin:

Very cool event. Complete with artificial snow! Hope other enjoyed it. I think people felt pressured to move along to the various events going on at each floor so shopping may have not been a priority. At least I felt that way. But I'll walk over there another night to do shopping. It seemed like a good turnout!

As I said on the Urban Living forum, it was a wonderful event with an unbelievable turnout!



Famous-Barr had solid crowds for the Final Four in 2005. I can think of many times where I've seen fairly brisk business around the lunch rush on weekdays or on days where there are multiple events (conventions, sporting events, etc.) downtown. And after years of declining traffic as Famous-Barr, I've noticed (anecdotally, of course) a slight upward trend in traffic since Macy's has renovated much of the space.



Still, last night's event was easily the largest crowd I've seen since St. Louis Centre opened in 1985. I'm sure it looked much more like a holiday crowd would have in 1957 or 1967 instead of what you'd expect at any downtown store in 2007.



It made my day to see the store that busy, and my son was in heaven since there were many children's activities, along with the animated displays along Olive Street and the train display at Seventh and Locust streets. We even spotted KMOX personality and downtown booster Charlie Brennan there with his family, proof that he walks the walk as well as he talks the talk about downtown.



Like jmatthewmckee, I get the impression not everyone was shopping last night, since much of the store was crowded and I couldn't even get to the areas in which I wanted to browse on the second floor last night (which, BTW, looks much better with the old Centre entrance sealed off and new merchandise there). Still, I saw many Macy's bags in hand, we did a little shopping ourselves, and there were lines at registers on several floors. Hopefully the event was enough of a success that Macy's will continue this practice in the future. And, hopefully many of the people there will give the downtown store a chance whenever they get the opportunity.

^

That is so great to hear - maybe it will be the beginning of a new holiday tradition for many St. Louis families.



Imagine what it could be like in a few years, when the Mercantile Exchange is completed - how cool will that be?

We went down last night after Thanksgiving dinner to walk around and see the window displays. It was very cool to see many people doing the very same thing. They were coming down by the car loads producing a steady stream of people.

Sounds like this could be the start of a tradition like the lighting of the Plaza in KC on Thanksgiving evening.

Real nice crowd today - one of the biggest I've ever seen. LONG lines at the register on the fifth floor, which was where I was shopping.



I think there needs to be more of a concerted, integrated effort to promote downtown on Thanksgiving weekend. In addition to holiday shoppers, we also have lots of people downtown for the state football championship games taking place today.

I walked by and through at lunch today. Very festive. Great windows! They made me wish the inside was a bit more unique (restored).



Macy's is testing the waters and changing the perceptions for downtown oldtimers. It seems the demand is there, it's deep, and it's largely untapped.