Guess Who Came to Town?

Yes, Santa Claus made a special trip to Texas and he happened to come to the original Neiman Marcus in downtown Dallas. My boys, along with their granddaddy and me, were able to go to see him there this week. If you've never had the opportunity to see the original Neiman Marcus store, go - it is a treat. They always decorate it to the hilt every Holiday Season, and this Christmas was no different.

Neiman Marcus was founded in 1907, and has been in this building on Main Street since 1914

Standing on the corner of Commerce and Ervay Street

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The window displays are always something magical, every time of the year but especially during Christmas.

Once inside, the color intensifies with ruby-colored fabric covering the entire elevator wall.  I like how the tree above is draped with leaves, in silver, gold and natural red colors.  Once inside the elevator, shown below, the wall decoration is much the same, with shimmering silver oak leaves. This is a decoration idea I think I might be able to do myself, after all, who doesn't have lots of leaves in their yard around Thanksgiving? And add one can of silver spray-paint? Presto! Too bad you cant buy a can of patience too... I'd need that to finish a garland with this many leaves!

These pictures are on the main floor (there are more than 7 floors). On this floor are the accessories, fine jewels, perfumes, candy bar, shoe salon, and of course SANTA.

Santa Claus sits right in front of Neiman Marcus's famous Fantasy Tree. This years theme is Books, and my son is trying to guess how many books are in this tree. He was close. He guessed 11,00 and it's 13,000.... Wow!

A view of the tree from Ervay Street, outside. The overhead lights project different colors on the tree.

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In the window next to the Fantasy Tree, is an explanation of this years First Book Tree. If you read below, Neimans has collected about a quarter of a million books through donations to be distributed to local schools and community programs. It is through the organization called First Book, which in its 20 year history, has donated over 65 million books throughout the United States and Canada.

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But what has to be the neatest thing I've seen in a long time, and the hi-light of our day, was the interactive window display. Entitled Innovations in Energy, this exhibition is more than just a display. As you can see in the photo below, kids crawl up into the window through this tube and can travel through the entire set of displays, and go all the way around the corner onto another street.

The tube stops here, in front of this lit wall, so the kids can get out and dance for all the people walking by on the street. Then they carry-on back through the tunnel, and through more windows. The robot boy on the left moves too.

If that's not enough, there's monitors setup throughout the windows, as well as in the Zodiac Restaurant on the 6th floor inside, that shows the kids traveling through the tunnel.

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This shows the wall outside where the windows are that the children are traveling inside of.

And finally, comes the end of the journey. They slide out into the street here, and if they're anything like my active children, they run super-fast to get back to the beginning to do it all over again. More than twice too. Things like this, seeing your children happy and laughing, talking to Santa Claus and thrilled with receiving a giant lollipop, is what makes Christmas fun and special to me.

all photographs: cashonandcompany.blogspot.com