by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
If you lived in Jacksonville in the 1960s you probably remember a holiday tradition that has not been celebrated for many years. In those days, all the department stores were open Downtown and part of the holiday shopping ritual was taking the time to look at all the decorations, including the displays in the store windows.
That tradition is being revived by the City’s Office of Special Events, which explains the windoes covered with brown paper along Laura and Hogan streets between the Landing and City Hall. The decorations behind the street-level windows will be unveiled Nov. 28 in conjunction with the lighting of the Christmas tree at the Landing.
“It’s the December edition of Make a Scene Downtown,” said Public Relations Manager Christina Langston. “We’re working with more than a dozen local artists who are designing and installing the displays. It’s a very diverse group and they’re working with some very diverse locations.”
Decorating store windows for the holidays has been a tradition for many years in cities like New York and Chicago. The new project was inspired by a photograph found in the archives of the Jacksonville Historical Society that showed how the May-Cohens department store’s windows looked during the holidays during the 1960s.
“There will be all sorts of designs and holiday themes in the windows,” said Media Support Specialist Lauren Powell, who is coordinating the project. “You’ll see Santa Claus with a surfboard and palm trees as well as more traditional themes. There’s even a panoramic design that will wrap around one of the windows at Independent Square.”
“So many people have made a tradition of coming Downtown for the lighting of the tree on Friday and then the Light Parade along the river on Saturday. The Holiday Windows project will give them a reason to discover what Downtown has to offer all the way to Hemming Plaza and City Hall and back,” said Langston.
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