Lights, Music, Animation

[naomikritzer]

Every December, Dayton's Marshall Field's Macy's does a big holiday display, with a bunch of animatronic scenes showing the characters from some well-known story. Last year was Cinderella; this year was Mary Poppins. It was a hit with the girls last year, so we took them again this year. We went tonight, figuring that Tuesday would be relatively uncrowded. Last year, we went on a Friday at around lunchtime, and there was a huge line. Many evenings in December there's a big holiday parade downtown, and that also draws crowds, but they don't hold it on Mondays or Tuesdays.

We guessed right: Tuesday at five is about as dead as it gets. Well, 7 a.m. might also be a good time to go. But there was no line, though there were plenty of other people passing through the exhibit at the same time. The girls liked it. I thought it was not as good as last year's. I haven't been to a ton of these, so I don't know whether last year's was unusually good or if Macy's is slacking off (cutting the budget, maybe? At least they're smart enough to realize that eliminating the exhibit entirely would be a public relations disaster.)

This exhibit has been an annual event for about forty years. People go in part because it's TRADITION. Many also dress up to go, which is striking given that Minnesotans don't dress up for much of anything anymore. Possibly they dress up their kids because you can have Santa pictures taken. (Molly saw the sign saying that Santa was In and was intrigued, but the line for that was much longer. I have been pondering a blog post with my analysis of all the ways in which the Santa custom is completely whacked and bizarre, but I'm not sure I want to withstand the potential resulting flame war, as Santa is one of the great sacred cows of American culture. Suffice it to say that I although I now celebrate Christmas with my family, as someone who did not grow up with the custom, I do not feel the least bit compelled to stand in an endless line so that my kids can sit in the lap of a total stranger and have their picture taken with him. Not that Kiera would, anyway.)

For dinner, we went to the semi-spiffy restaurant on the 12th floor and were lucky enough to get seated immediately, despite the crowd waiting, because we had a party of four and everyone else was with a larger group. I'm not sure how child-friendly this place is the rest of the year, but in December, there are hordes of children in there. (All behaving themselves. I see articles on a nearly weekly basis complaining about the people who take children to four-star restaurants and then ignore them as they scream their lungs out, and I don't know why I never see this happen. Maybe I emit some sort of child-calming energy and should eat out more often, as a public service.) The service was good but the food was...hmm. Hotel-grade, I guess. I ordered a lobster ravioli but only one of the ravioli had enough lobster inside that I could taste it. Kiera ordered mac & cheese off the children's menu, which said that it was macaroni served in a "creamy blend of mild cheeses." It was Kraft. No, seriously. Or maybe a knockoff. We don't keep boxed mac & cheese around, but I did buy Annie's once and Kiera liked it a lot. However, she refused to eat it today, and I'm not sure if it was because she was put off by the glow-in-the-dark orange shade, or because it arrived lukewarm. If I go there again, I'm just going to get a hamburger, I think, or some other basic "you could make this at home and are eating out for convenience, not for the experience" kind of dish. It was, at least, a nice, relaxing experience, which was really what we wanted. Last year, we were up there at lunchtime, and ate in the cafeteria, which was not all that much cheaper but was a lot more work when we were tired and cranky and really wanted to just sit down and have someone bring us food.

Then we took the escalator down to the first floor. We did this last year, and Molly and Kiera clearly view the extended escalator ride to be Part of the Experience.

On our way home, I drove us past the house at the corner of 41s t Ave and 32nd St. magentamn clued me into this: it's a house with flashing Christmas lights that are synchronized to music being broadcast on a radio frequency at very low power. You can tune your car radio in and watch the lights dance to the music. Awesome. I kind of wonder if the guy's neighbors think it's neat or if they want to blow up the whole damn display to get rid of the gawkers -- there were a bunch of other cars sitting at the intersection watching the lights perform.

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/aseop_/]

Not all such holiday traditions survive. I Boston they had the "Enchanted Village" a recreation of a victorian christmas village, with manquins moving back and forth in period costume and lots of teddy bears (if I remember correctly). It was run by Jordan Marsh until 1972 and ressurected again in the early 1990's, then run by the city, then supported by charitable donations when the city had no money, and finally this year canceled altogether. I heard the exhibit was getting rather ratty and tarnished. Unless someone revived the institution years from now, I fear it is gone. So be greatful for what traditions do survive.

[lilisonna.livejournal.com]

As someone still figuring out the whole Santa thing, I'd love to hear your take on it.

Although one thing that I have decided is that there's no way in hell I'm standing in line to get my daughter's picture taken with Santa.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The years have varied so much that I don't think I can blame Macy's that this one isn't as sparkly as last year's. (My current guess is that I've been to 20+ of these in 28 years.)

porphyrin and her spousal unit and timprov and I took Robin yesterday afternoon, and he was enthralled. Had to be reminded that there was more story to look at further on. He keeps getting to be more fun as he gets Big.

[maggiedr.livejournal.com]

I can testify that Dayton's had holiday window displays, as did Donaldson's, Power's and other downtown stores, over 50 years ago. It was a family tradition to drive downtown and walk down the streets to gaze in the windows and watch the displays. Amazingly, the stores were closed for the night--there were no holiday hours yet.

Then Dayton's got the bright idea of putting their display inside (probably 40 years ago is right), thereby drawing customers past the merchandise. I think they may have put up window displays again once Holidazzle started, but I'm not sure on that score.

The 8th floor display has been remarkably inconsistent from year to year as far as quality. My guess is that some years, there isn't a budget for it. I haven't been to see it for about 15 years now. We took our kids for about 5 years running, but it was never the joyous family event that I wanted it to be. In fact, I pretty much gave up on Christmas about seven or eight years ago. By that, I mean that I went from major production to as simple and low-key as possible.

The past four holiday seasons, I was employed at Border's Books. That left me with no time or energy for Christmas what so ever--plus an aversion to entering any retail stores between Thanksgiving and New Years. (Holiday season for retailers doesn't really end until mid January, because of the popularity of gift cards and post=Christmas sales.)

I'm actually semi-enjoying the season this year for the first time in nearly a decade. Kids are adults, I'm not gainfully employed, and no one has any great expectations.

[racebannon42.livejournal.com]

I was thinking that Macy's was not going to keep the Dayton's/MF tradition going. I seem to recall people being upset by that when the takeover was announced. Maybe I'm imagining things. I'm glad its still there.

I may have to check out the dancing lights display thanks for the tip!

[naomikritzer]

There has been a lot of speculation that Macy's won't keep it going, in part because they don't seem to have made a firm commitment one way or another.

It seems like a no-brainer to me. Yes, it costs money, but it draws an insane number of people into their store, many of them people who would not ordinarily shop there. We didn't buy any regular merchandise, but we bought meals there, both times, and at $8 for Kiera's bowl of Kraft mac & cheese plus a dish of apple sauce (okay, she also got a "collectible Santa Bear mug" and a cookie) the profit margins on their meals are clearly pretty high. They also have fresh gingerbread cookies for sale as you leave the exhibit, which you can smell baking in the exhibit itself; we didn't buy those this year, but we bought them last year. If they're not making money on this, or at least breaking even, they're not doing it right.

Then again, they were stupid enough to eliminate the "free drinks" perk for the people who put more than $2000 a year on their store credit cards. I wasn't even aware of this until the article ran about them getting rid of it, because I don't keep a wallet full of credit cards and don't spend $2000 a year there anyway, but talk about a dumb corner to cut. They gave out free pop, tea, and coffee. This stuff is dirt cheap. They complained that a lot of these people would just come in, get a drink, and leave again if they were shopping downtown. Well, fair enough, but if they're spending $2000 a year at your store already, why would you begrudge them a free drink now and then? But in any case, why not alter the program to create a win-win? Put in a lounge somewhere that they have to pass lots of merchandise to get it. Restrict access to elite cardholders. Say that you have to go THERE to get your drink, so you're using it the way grocery stores use the milk and eggs. But provide them with comfortable chairs to sit down in while they're there, strew the tables liberally with ads and catalogs for new and soon-to-arrive merchandise. Have a case of "preview" merchandise that they can look at. Encourage your personal shoppers to regularly stop by the lounge to ask people sipping their drinks if there's anything they need to shop for. Don't punish your cash cows! Improve their feed and milk them for all their worth!!!

But did they ask me? No. *sigh*.

[naomikritzer]

All THEY'RE worth.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I hate it when I don't have time to eat lunch.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure how child-friendly this place is the rest of the year, but in December, there are hordes of children in there. (All behaving themselves. I see articles on a nearly weekly basis complaining about the people who take children to four-star restaurants and then ignore them as they scream their lungs out, and I don't know why I never see this happen.

I wonder about this one, too. To hear the militantly childfree tell it, every public space in America is jam-packed with misbehaving children and their negligent parents. For me, it's quite rare to see a massive public meltdown - especially one that's unresponded-to. Usually it's the reverse. As an usher at my church, I'm always chasing after visitors with infants to say that they don't have to leave just because their child has started to coo.

[naomikritzer]

My experience is much like yours. When I see a child melt down in public, their parents generally remove them instantly if they have that option. (They can't on an airplane, obviously, and they're unlikely to when they're in line at the grocery store. But I've never seen a child cry in a restaurant for more than a half a minute without being taken out or calmed down.)

And yet in discussions of the appropriateness of children being in public places, there are always childfree people who swear they endure the screaming children and insensitive parents in four-star restaurants every time they eat out. There was a discussion of this at Pandagon a week or two ago. Like many negative stereotypes, I think that the image of the constant presence of misbehaving children in restaurants is one of those established facts that everyone feels free to refer to, even if it's not nearly the problem people think it is. Presumably it does happen occasionally, thus fueling the self-righteousness of people who think that children should be kept out of sight, and their caregivers with them.

[sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on that. I see very few public meltdowns, and most of those are not really public at all, they're in the cloakroom at DD's daycare when a kid isn't ready to go home or whatever (this morning it was DD's classmate E, whose mom apparently just wasn't velcro-ing her shoes quite tight enough. Hanging around with E always makes me feel Greatly Relieved that mine is not the only kid like that). Even fewer events are not promptly handled in some way, usually by removal.

And yet, I hear people kvetching about misbehaving kids in public places constantly.

Interestingly, I've also found that when it's my kid melting down -- which I have to say is really rare, especially compared to the stories I've heard from my own childhood ::shudder:: -- nobody ever says anything. I tend to really focus down on DD and the situation, so I have no idea whether people are looking at us with horror or condemnation or sympathy or rueful amusement or whatever, but I've never had an out-loud Mommy Drive-By related to a freak-out. Which fascinates me: Why, if they're not bothered enough by a noodle-like four-year-old being hauled along under the armpits through a subway station at rush hour while howling "Nononononono! Noooooooo! Nonononononononooooooo!" to make any comment, do they feel the need to remark on the fact that her hair needs cutting, her shoes aren't appropriate for the weather, she should be wearing her mittens, her jacket is unzipped, she's very small for her age, etc., etc., etc., when she's behaving well? Odd, very.