Oh the memories! I'm a born & bred Chicagoan. I went every year to The Walnut Room & to see the windows & the toy department. Then we'd have high tea at the Hotel Intercontinental, see the sights, & go back to State Street to see the lights as it got dark. It was so magical. I continued, with my mom & older sister to go every Christmas time to Fields & then to tea, & back to State Street for the lights & Christkindle Market until covid. Our beautiful city has lost some of its magic since sadly. But, at least I have the memories of such magical & wonderful times. Ironically, your background music is Carol Of The Bells... Which is the Ukrainian Christmas Carol. Which is one of my favorites. I happen to be Ukrainian & my mom grew up in Ukrainian Village in Chicago.
Downtown Akron in Ohio, mom and dad would take us kids down to see the window displays at polsky's and O'Neil's on Thanksgiving evening. I miss the good old days. Thank you mom and dad for the beautiful memories.
I was born and raised in Chicago, 1951. Very fond memories of Marshall Field at Christmas and “Toy Land.” Best part of growing up. I remember the other department stores copying the idea. The December trip by the El Train from the south side to downtown loop was a much anticipated event.😄
I’m not from Chicago but in Vancouver we had Woodward’s department store that would have these cutting edge animatronic Christmas display widows I loved seeing it every Christmas as a small kid
Dallas Galleria Marshall Field’s was the best store for families during the Holidays! So many wonderful memories! Pleeeeeease bring Marshall Field’s back!
Thank God I made it to Marshall Fields before Macy's, came to be in that Grand Space on State Street, the tears still fall for the loss of the Grand Old Department Store.
Sure do, THAT Chicago is long gone. Hopefully it comes back to it's glory days. We went back for a Christmas visit 4 years ago and walked around downtown but there just wasn't that same feel.
The first Sunday of December was the Marshall Field’s employee’s Christmas Party in the Walnut Room. I have so many childhood memories of those parties. I was able to bring my daughter to the same Fields Party. I miss Marshall Field’s
On a smaller scale, where I grew up in San Jose CA the furniture chain Breuner's would set up Christmas windows with animatronic characters dressed up in some sort of old fashioned American Christmas theme! We loved to go visit it each year when I was a kid!
Started school at Patricia Stevens in 1961 and remember incredible MF windows of Santa's Workshop, elvees busily working.., Santa's Sleigh soaring across inside Atrium and coming back to school at 10 pm in a taxi from Union Station, being driven down State St., virtually only vehicle in sight, wondering at all the millions of fairy lights on trees swaying in the dark...magical!
Took the words out of my mouth. Late 60's and early 70's were the best! We would always stop in the Palmer House and we would get hot chocolate at Wimpys. As a kid it WAS the big city.
Us..who grew up with these precious memories say Loud and clear Fields is and will always be chicago-macys you are new york..I never returned after macys sign went up..those windows,the walnut room,the iconic green clock marshall fields..not macys...love your thanksgiving parade..hate your name on my old store!
Chicago was a special place during that time. As a frequent visitor in the 90s and early 2000s it was still magical during the Christmas season. Macys taking over Marshall Fields has been a slow disaster in the makings. It’s like they have purposely set out to destroy it.
Right near the end there was a window of a mailbox scene. I remember that was my favorite one be cause I always wondered how Santa got the letters from children. My mom and dad worked for the postal service and took letters from me and my brother down to the mailbox at Marshall Fields to be sent to Santa. I remember that I wanted to be writer and that I was proud of those letters! We then got to wander around the store and see the Christmas decorations (also, there was lunch in the Field's cafeteria!) God I miss those times!😂
Just lovely! But please be aware that the image beginning at 1:32 shows the main floor of Carson Pirie Scott, and the image at 1:53 shows The Boston Store at State & Madison.
Amazing Video. Too bad the Macy's sale went through. The State Street Store (sort of) survives. But it is not the place it was. Thanks for the walk down memory lane.
My Father was born in Chicago in 1931. Growing up in New Jersey I only visited Chicago once in the summer of 1967. I wish I could have seen this Holiday chee
Dope describes my rhymes, making all you emcees cold drop like dimes. You know MCSC is back again, and battling me on the microphone is like committing a sin. Scott the Illinois Seer/MCSC the Chicago Seer
The Dayton-Hudson Corporation (formed by a merger of Minneapolis' Dayton's stores and Detroit's Hudson's) begat Target in the 1960s, a move which surely contributed, over time, to the decline and demise of many hometown department stores. Ironically, they rebranded Dayton's Minnesota stores as Marshall Fields in 2001, albeit nothing much changed--other than they started selling Frango mints--until it was sold and rebranded yet again as Macy's in 2006. Thereafter, the original downtown Minneapolis flagship store, which had had its own tradition of Christmas windows as Dayton's through much of the 20th century, began to shrink floor by floor before finally closing in 2017. (The Dayton's building in Minneapolis still exists, but Detroit's Hudson building was demolished in 1998.)
