Going to Philadelphia from the suburbs when I was a young girl to shop was a common occurrence. A trip at Christmastime was an annual tradition, Strawbridge & Clothier and Lit Brothers did it up beautifully, adding special attractions for the holiday season. But nothing compared to the John Wanamaker Department Store. The toy department on the 8th floor was magical, then the Dickens Village was added later on.
My husband surprised me with tickets to the Dickens Village this past Christmas. The 6,000-square-foot experience transports visitors to 1840s London with 26 heart-warming scenes. The village is not just a brick-floored walk-through of “A Christmas Carol“; it was a walk down memory lane for me as well. Although the animated figures are antiquated in the world of AI and computer-generated imagery, it was endearing, capturing my heart once again all these years later.
Already feeling nostalgic, the John Wanamaker Christmas Light Show is all-encompassing sentimentality. It uses more than 100,000 LED lights to project iconic holiday characters such as Sugar Plum Fairies, Frosty the Snowman, the Nutcracker and Santa upon a four-story-high velvet curtain in the Grand Court atrium. It is accompanied by festive music from the world-renowned Wanamaker Grand Organ. As I tilted my head back, I was the little girl I once was watching this same spectacular year after year. This show is my youth, my mom and Philadelphia converging throughout my entire body and mind.
To me it will always be Wanamaker’s, but it is actually a Macy’s now. Three weeks after my return for the first time in over a decade, it was announced that this location will be closing. I was so thankful to Mister Rain for getting the tickets so that I could enjoy Christmas a la Wanamaker one last time, although I didn’t know it at the time. I hope that someone saves the Light Show, despite its size and complexity. I can’t think of an existing place with the space required to accommodate it nor can I imagine the work involved in dismantling it and reinstalling it somewhere else. But the little girl with the stiff neck from looking up and the woman she became believes in the magic of the John Wanamaker Christmas Light Show. As Frosty promises during the show, “I’ll be back again some day!”
For other Wanamaker’s stories:
“This Monorail Transports Me Back”
“Meet Me At The Eagle“
#sisterrain #alittlesightalotofheart #legallyblindwriter #writer #writersofinstagram #history #philadelphia #johnwanamaker #wanamaker #dickensvillage #christmaslightshow #itwaschristmastimeinthecity
