One of the most enjoyable holiday activities for Salt Lake families is viewing downtown merchants' carefully crafted Christmas windows. Crowds have already discovered that three of the most interesting this year are found at ZCMI Department Store (Main and South Temple), O.C. Tanner Jewelry (South Temple) and Modern Display on the corner of 400 South and 700 East.
The merchants call them "institutional windows," because they purposely create an interesting and aesthetic display without pushing any product. ZCMI has been doing such windows as "a gift to the city" since the 1970s. For the past eight years, the emphasis has been on candy.Mike Stephens, ZCMI's visual director, says there are six different designers for six windows, each with a different story to tell. They create a theme for the windows each January.
This year the theme is "Not a creature was stirring..." -- more specifically, dogs, cows, moose and fish. Then they assign each window to a designer, most of whom have a background in either graphic design or fashion.
Color renderings are due in June, then in July they order 6,000 pounds of candy. In October, they start assembling the materials. Finally, there is a 10-day rush to get the displays installed in the windows in time for the unveiling on the Friday after Thanksgiving.
"The windows are so shallow that it's difficult to work inside them," says Stephens. "The doorways are very narrow. The display is divided into sections, but we cover all the seams. There is no place to stand, and so each designer has to figure how to install it in exactly what order, then how to get out of the window. When the designers are finished the whole facade is lit up like a big sunrise -- in red, purple and blue."
This year ZCMI is offering gift certificates to customers who can spot the mouse in each window.
Around the corner at O.C.Tanner Jewelry, there are 12 windows decorated under the watchful eyes of Bob Martin, an interior designer, and Diana Gardner, a watercolorist. They head the meticulous effort to create something beautiful in the personal tradition of O.C. Tanner, who always tried to immortalize beauty.
Martin and Gardner already know the theme for their 1999 windows. This year, the whimsical theme is "Sugar Plum Fairies," made up of dolls dressed by designer Ed Jenson. Early on, Gardner conceived the idea to use old gilded frames like those on paintings of the old masters.
The window announcing the theme says, "The older we grow, the dearer they seem. Childhood's pure joys become grownups' fond dreams."
Martin and Gardner used 15,000 sheets of gold leafing for fruit, frames, chandeliers and pots holding trees. "It's a very labor-intensive project. We put the sheets of gold leaf on a piece of black frame, paint it orange, then go over the top of the frame with an adhesive and put these pieces of gold leaf down one sheet at a time. We did hundreds of pieces of fruit in this process, put adhesive on the fruit and then roll the fruit in the gold leaf."
Martin believes Christmas is primarily a traditional holiday. "It comprises memories of the past -- red, green, candy canes, a green tree, etc. We like it to be whimsical. Last year, we did Santa's Workshop with 87 different hand-made elves in hand-knitted sweaters. This year's is completely different, and next year's will be different again."
Because they are naturally creative and each has an excellent eye for detail, Martin and Gardner maintain an easy collaboration. Neither has had formal training in display work, but Martin says he's done it for so many years that "it's just become a part of me."
The use of minuscule fiber optic lighting is especially important to the finished product. It runs from a projector up through the floor into the frame. "At night," says Martin, "these fiber optic colors explode from across the street. The farther away you are, the brighter they are."
Martin and Gardner have the temporary help of 10 to 15 seasonal employees who work very hard to assemble the window displays, putting in approximately 500 hours during October and November. In the two weeks before the windows were unveiled, Martin alone logged 145 hours on the windows.
Those who view the Tanner windows should make sure they start at the windows in front of the store, then open the door to the enclosed walkway east of the front door, between Tanner and ZCMI's food court and view the rest of the windows in warmth.
Viewers enjoy reading the interpretation that is silk-screened on the surface of each window.
Over at Modern Display, 400 South and 700 East, is another stunning window display. Under the supervision of commercial artists and interior designers, shop employees have manufactured a little house on the south side of the store. It is explosively lit with four 20-amp circuits.
Large icicle lights, Christmas tree lights and a halogen Santa Claus carefully blend to match the other colors in the showroom. Building the little house took three weeks; then five people installed it over three days.
Howard Wilson, store manager, began as a designer himself. He says, "It's fun to be here at night after we close. We sit inside with the lights out and watch the people come up, drive by, slow down or come into our parking lot. You see a mom and dad and three little kids walk across the lawn and peer into the windows. A lot of these people may never come into the store."
Wilson realizes the display makes excellent advertising. He estimates there are a million cars a year going past Modern Display on 700 East, a number that has accelerated since construction began on I-15. "Christmas is a wonderful time, because there is so much darkness, and that's when windows really sparkle."