Christmas window displays celebrate the festive season

Christmas window displays celebrate the festive season

The safest form of Christmas shopping is window-shopping. It gets you into the spirit of the season without costing a cent. Some Christmas windows, around the world even offer free movies and entertainment.

The travel experts at Cheapflights.com.au, the online leader in finding and publishing travel deals, have borrowed Santa's sled and scoured the globe to reveal the Top 11 Festive Window Displays around the World that will definitely get shoppers into the holiday spirit and bring a cheery smile to everyone's face.

Myer, Melbourne, Australia
More than 1.2 million visitors a year visit Myer in Melbourne to view the animated Christmas windows. For Myer's 59th Christmas animated window, a team of more than 40 artisans created a 3D adaption of the children's book "Santa Claus and the Three Bears" by Maria Modugno. A team of artists spent 17,000 hours putting together the scene from a range of materials including more than 25kg of sugar glitter, 50kg of faux snow and around 200 metres of glitter jazz fabric.

Selfridges, London, United Kingdom
Some of the most enchanting tales of all time, from the 300-year-old "Sleeping Beauty" right up to 1978's "The Snowman”, have been told in the windows of London’s Selfridges. This year, the department store honours 25 classic stories with a contemporary, luxurious twist. Topping things off is the giant "Destination Christmas" centerpiece made with more than 10,000 lights and complete with Selfridges' own top-hatted and monocled Golden Goose. Sticking with the storytelling theme, Selfridges' in-store cinema will screen several classic tales like "Pinocchio" and "It's A Wonderful Life" over the Christmas period.

Macy's, New York, N.Y., United States
Macy's was the first department store in New York to introduce Christmas window displays when it debuted its animated Christmas displays in the early 1870s. The team at Macy's spends more than a year planning the Christmas display. Then for 21 days and nights, a band of display artists, graphic artists, sculptural artists, builders, animators, carpenters, electricians and music and sound experts creates Christmas magic. This year's theme, "Santa's Journey to the Stars," was unveiled on the weekend with and out-of-this-world design of custom-made planets, handmade elves and toys lit by the twinkle of thousands of lights as Santa zips through space on a souped-up sleigh for an intergalactic Christmas.

Smith & Caughey’s, Auckland, New Zealand
Ahoy! In Auckland, the City of Sails, New Zealand’s leading department store, is basing their Christmas window on the children’s book ‘A Pirates Twelve Days of Christmas’. With twelve cannons blasting, nine mermaids singing, six Jolly Rogers, three black cats and a parrot in a palm tree – your little pirates will love it.

Galeries Lafayette, Paris, France
Things are getting a little topsy turvy at Paris's iconic Galeries Lafayette this Noel. For 2014, Galeries Lafayette's iconic 82-foot-tall Christmas tree will be standing on its head! Suspended from the store's famous 100-year-old Art Nouveau dome, the brilliantly coloured tree will feature a "monstrous" sound and light display every hour set to dazzle an estimated 150,000 visitors every day. Bringing a good dose of festive mischief to proceedings, Gustave the Monster and his gang of fuzzy buddies are set to star in the store's animated window display on Boulevard Haussmann.

Rounding out this list of enchanting window displays across the globe are: Fortnum & Mason,London, United Kingdom;, La Maison Ogilvy, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Bergdorf Goodman, New York, N.Y., United States; Harvey Nichols, Edinburgh, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Bristol, Dublin & London, United Kingdom & Ireland; David Jones, Sydney, Australia; and Bloomingdale's, New York, N.Y., United States. To read more on these and to see Cheapflights.com's complete list, visit: http://www.cheapflights.com.au/news/top-11-festive-window-displays-around-world/

Cheaplfights.com.au is an online flight comparison service, dedicated helping travellers find the best airfare to suit their budget, timeframe and individual travelling needs.

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