Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus--But He's Gone High-Tech

It had to happen: New York’s famous holiday windows have gone high-tech. Department stores have caught up with the digital age, no longer content to feature mere winter wonderlands or smiling Santas. Here, a look at the must sees:
Over at Bloomingdale’s (59th and Lexington Avenue), happy famous couples fill the windows, from Batman and Robin to Mr. and Mrs. Claus. Check out the Smile-O-Matic, in which passersby can see themselves on a screen surrounded by digitally remastered versions of famous art work, such as Botticelli’s “Venus.”
The perennially hip Barney’s (Madison Avenue and 61st Street) has bypassed holiday themes altogether in favor of the 35th anniversary of "Saturday Night Live.” You’ll find The Coneheads, Wayne’s World, even The Church Lady, in a bizarre blizzard of paper mache ornaments.
The children’s story ”Twinkle, Twinkle Little Flake” gets a digital boost with the help of 20 video monitors that animate scenes from the book at Saks Fifth Avenue. (Yes, Windows 7 powers the windows…) Shoppers can even tweet their wish list and have it appear in the yes, windows (It's at 611 Fifth Avenue.)
Over at Bergdorf Goodman, it’s not space age as much as it is surreal, with a nod, perhaps, to Tim Burton’s upcoming film "Alice in Wonderland”: watch for the receding staircase and the edgy guests dressed in fashionable Alexander McQueen.
Macy’s (34th Street and Herald Square) also goes interactive by letting shoppers assemble letters to Santa with ready-made phrases that pop up on touch screens.
And even the goody-goody Lord & Taylor (424 Fifth Avenue at 38th Street) has recognized the computer age this year. Nothing too risqué, of course, but the Victorian skaters in the windows move on a screen, while pelted by a digital snowstorm.

A Chicken-Stealing Fox Takes Over a Famous Men's Store

At the Men’s Store at Bergdorf Goodman, one of New York’s poshest department stores, you might expect impeccably tailored designer clothing; high-end accessories; and eccentric, rather pricey gifts...but Claymation figures from a children’s book?
Yup.
The sets from the movie “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which opens today in New York and L.A. and nationally on November 25, and had its premiere at the famed men’s department store this week, are on display through early January, thus providing the store’s all-important holiday display. Directed by Wes Anderson (“Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums”), and based on the best-selling, classic children’s book by Roald Dahl (“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” “James and the Giant Peach”) the movie tells the story of the title character, a rascally, chicken-stealing-thief-turned-journalist-turned-chicken-stealing-thief-again who puts his family’s life in jeopardy. Mr. Fox and his friends and family join together to fight the three evil farmers—Boggis, Bunce, and Bean—who are set on capturing Mr. Fox and putting an end to his chicken-stealing ways. George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Michael Gambon, and Bill Murray are among the high-profile cast members.
The store, located on Fifth Avenue and 58th Street, features 12 windows with exquisite sets from the generally well-reviewed film, which was done in painstaking stop-motion animation. Anderson, known for his whimsical, odd, offbeat sense of humor, was responsible for building and designing all the objects in the film; it’s his first foray into animated movies.
Why the tie-in? Movies have provided fodder for store windows before (remember “Harry Potter”?). And it’s certainly more interesting—and guaranteed to get people to stop and look--than a display of suits and sweaters, no matter how nicely designed.