A mannequin in white fur and winter finery poses in the Christmas 2015 windows at Saks with a cityscape reflection in the background.

As much as we wanted to see Rockefeller Center, Central Park and the museums of NYC decorated for Christmas 2015, we placed the windows of NYC department stores at the top of our must-see list.  Magical, sparkly, elaborate — these windows were all we expected and more.  In a previous post, we showed you fanciful pastries in the windows of Lord & Taylor and told you how the endearing Peanuts characters cheered up a down-in-the-dumps Charlie Brown at Macy’s. But the windows at Saks topped even these.

This mannequin looks assertive and poised as she “walks” toward the crowd in a window at Saks Fifth Avenue. The flags are reflections from the building across the street.

Now, we must say we were taken aback at first.  Not that the Saks Fifth Avenue windows weren’t spectacular.  They were. And they were so much more.  But they weren’t what we were expecting for Christmas windows. They weren’t traditional, and that was by design.

Cakes and candelabras added to the ambience of the Winter Palace theme at Saks.

With the theme of The Winter Palace, Saks designers and decorators worked a year in advance to prepare blue-hued windows bearing sensuously posed models in icy colors of silver and white for a breathtaking, almost ethereal, wintry experience.

A sea-like mannequin floats magically above undulating waves in a Christmas window at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Mannequins floated.  Mannequins posed.  Mannequins seemed engaged in whispered conversation. But always they maintained the aura of haute couture models wearing the finest gowns, headpieces, and jewelry found at Saks Fifth Avenue.

Lighted trees on the facade of Saks Fifth Avenue

But something else crept in to my photos of these ice princesses:  the reflection of the mid-day sun.  That brightness not only spoiled any ideas I had of shooting clear pictures for readers to see; it also reflected anything that was in front of the ice palace windows onto the photos — buildings, spectators, street vendors, etc. But rather than bemoan the fact that I couldn’t get “pure” photos of the Saks windows, I enjoyed seeing what two photos in one would look like.

So here’s my favorite “wellwhathavewehere?” photo: Two sensuously posed ladies super-imposed onto a reflection of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, the building across the street.  Ironic? Perhaps.  But for sure, unexpected.

Two sensuously posed models seem ironically “surrounded” by a reflection of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

For more about the windows from an article (“Saks Fifth Avenue celebrates the Holiday Palace on Fifth”) and a video of the opening celebration, you may want to check out this site. And for clear night photos of the windows, check out this post on Focal Point Styling: “Christmas in NY: The Dazzling #SaksHoliday Window Display.”

White on white, a mannequin floats atop a cloud at Saks Fifth Avenue, Christmas 2015.

Then tell us what you think.  Do you like the Saks windows?  Or do you prefer something more traditionally Christmas?

We’d love to hear from you.

–Bert and Rusha

For more on our Christmas Holiday NYC, click here.