mornin’ merrymakers 🎄✨🪟🎁🎀💫

welcome back to our little december field trip. if you need to catch up, parts one & two are waiting for you.

this week, we are heading across the pond because europe takes holiday decor very seriously. i studied abroad in vienna once, and it completely recalibrated my sense of what festive design could be. europeans treat december like a full sensory art form. lights get brighter. windows get stranger.

entire streets commit to the bit.

so for our final stop, we are wandering through the best holiday windows in london and paris. think enchanted creatures, magical workshops, fairytale façades, and all the twinkle lights.

fortnum & mason looks like someone cracked open a storybook and let all the characters escape.

the windows feel like an advent calendar that came to life. unicorns twirl under disco lights. narwhals leap through colorful waves. fireworks frame a pair of lovebirds perched like they are starring in a winter opera. the entire show is orchestrated by a battalion of tiny redcoat mice who appear in every scene, proudly running the holiday chaos.

the whole building glows in layers of red, white, and evergreen.

it feels like london at its most whimsical.

selfridges collaborated with disney and essentially said what if we just turn the entire building into a castle.

outside, the facade glows like a royal landmark.

18 interactive window scenes bring classics to life. peter pan, cinderella, sleeping beauty, fantasia, alice in wonderland and more.

tinkerbell even sends pixie dust across more than one hundred metres of sparkling lights wrapped around the building with forty bright stars woven in.

it is nostalgic and theatrical for serotonin maxxing.

galeries lafayette is celebrating the theme “the most beautiful gift.”

the windows look like santa’s workshop reimagined through the lens of a parisian illustrator.

characters prepare for the big day with a kind of elegant chaos. a printer spits out endless wrapping paper. elves assemble gifts with startling efficiency. a baby elephant and a little duck in boots wander through the scene like they accidentally stumbled into the job.

the main event is here is inside where you find a giant floating 50 ft christmas tree.

for the 1st time, they also added an ice rink to the roof!

the whole thing feels quintessential december in paris & has me desperately wanted to buy a plane ticket.

harrods teamed up with brunello cucinelli for a holiday world rooted in the brand’s soft, philosophical spirit.

aka their feel-osophy.

the windows look like claymation made of cashmere, which is exactly the vibe cucinelli is known for. each scene pulls from the values of solomeo, their italian hometown, guarded by a gentle holiday creature named philo the griffin.

sadly thought i must admit, i liked their diwali festival of lights display more than this.

saved the best & my favorite for last.

annabel’s (a private members club in london) transformed its facade into a full narnia moment. think of the instant lucy steps through the wardrobe into a snow-covered world and everything goes still.

the building is wrapped in frosted branches, soft white everything. it truly feels more like a portal than the a decoration. makes you even more curious about what it’s like inside this opulent, celebrity loved, exclusive establishment.

as a bonus, the installation supports the caring family foundation, which always earns extra holiday points.

with that our holiday tour comes to a wrap! hope you enjoyed these merry sightings. no newsletter on thursday. in the mean time, wishing you the merriest everything!

p.s. santa requested i don’t send a newsletter on thursday.

p.p.s. he also said you’ll automatically be on the nice list if you click below.