For generations of Chicagoans, marshall field means business and Christmas.

Marshall Field Department Store in Chicago has stopped celebrating

Christmas since 25, but as long as this name is mentioned, locals in any windy city will think of it. During the festival, it will bring them back to the childhood wonders of the flagship shopping mall in the city center: looking up at the towering evergreen trees and glittering ornaments on the branches of the walnut room. Winding forward, go to the comfortable cloud cabin and wait for a moment with Santa Claus. I was amazed at the elaborate holiday window on the state street and tasted the first bite of Marshall Field's Frango Mint, which was made in the candy kitchen upstairs.

cynics may think that these memories are just a reflection of cold retail strategy. But for Chicago people, the emotional connection is real, just like for shoppers all over the country, they cherish the family-owned department stores rooted in the city center. There are films in Boston, Richie in Atlantis, Hudson in troy, Harley in Cleveland, and Wanamaker in Philadelphia. Although they were originally considered as commercial centers, they gradually developed into larger institutions in American life, where families of all castes and classes can enjoy the grand occasion of services and goods without admission fees.

no time is more real than a holiday. Before the era of online shopping and franchising came, large shopping centers led them to extinction (for example, marshall field department store was transformed into Macy's department store), and these stores occupied an important position in our Christmas memories.

But how do these retail stores inspire this wonderful feeling? As a historian, I am fascinated by growing up in Chicago. In Chicago, marshall field is as much a part of the city's soul as our lakeside or cubs. When I was a child, I would meet my grandmother under the famous clocks of State Avenue and Washington Avenue, and then go to the walnut room to have lunch with my grandfather, who worked as a linen buyer in Field Department Store for 25 years. When Macy's change was announced, fans gathered under the clock with the slogan "Field Department Store is Chicago-Macy's Department Store". They have been picketing there every autumn since 25. This year's slogan reads: "If the Cubs win the World Series, marshall field can go back to Chicago."

Christmas is not a holiday anywhere in the United States. Potter Palmer came to Chicago in 1852 and opened a dry goods store. By the beginning of this century, his successors, marshall field and Levi Wright (which later became the field of the same name), had built it into the leading department store in the Midwest, which was famous for its impeccable customer care, generous return policy, high-quality goods and extensive services (from tea room to lounge, shoe repair to hotel). All reservations made shoppers stay in this building and reach for their wallets.

Christmas, however, has received little attention. The store finally began to advertise Christmas cards and gifts. In 1885, they opened a seasonal toy store (which later became year-round). The first mention of Marshall Field and the company's holiday decorations was in 197. This store has just opened in a commemorative new building featuring walnut house. It is reported that the staff of the restaurant put up a small Christmas tree in 1934.

, the tree is 25 feet high. By the middle of this century, Field claimed to have the largest indoor Christmas conifer tree in the world: a 45-foot-long evergreen tree hung on the top of the drainage fountain in the walnut house. In order to trim the evergreen tree for the children, 18 decorators and three-story scaffolding are needed, which seems to extend all the way to the sky.

For decades, department stores like marshall field have adopted more and more sophisticated strategies to attract shoppers. When the fragrance of Mrs. Hailing's chicken pie floated out of the walnut room, huge "ice" reindeer flew over the booth, huge sugar cane and evergreen garlands were wrapped around the aisle, and Ji 'an stars and huge snowflakes floated in the sky. In the dazzling display of holiday spirit, Field's heart conveys Merry Christmas from top to bottom.

, and then marshall field's gift box. Each one has elegant calligraphy with a company name, indicating that the gifts inside are worth tasting. It is not unheard of for the gift giver to reuse those infamous solid containers and pack them with "impostor" goods from other stores, both out of thrift and to convey the glory of this unspeakable field.

there are good reasons for the field to continue these traditions. But their real strength comes from surpassing their original business purpose. For many Chicagoans, the Marshall Field department store at Christmas has changed from a well-stocked department store to an almost sacred family ceremony.

none of these ceremonies is more legendary than the holiday window.

in 191, due to the improvement of glass manufacturing technology, huge transparent panels could be produced. Shops all over the United States began to install elaborate window displays, and when they became a powerful temptation to attract shoppers, they tried to upgrade quickly.

Arthur Fraser, a creative window designer in marshall field, used the big corner window of Washington Avenue to display holiday gifts. His first exhibition board has an animated carousel and a toy train with gifts ready. But in 1944, John Moss, the new stylist of this store, gave up this hard sales and used the narrative window to reproduce Clement Moore's A Visit from Saint Nicholas. Storyboards were so popular that they were reused the next year.

Soon a new trend of holiday window became popular: the store-specific mascot. Montgomery Ward claimed Rudolph was a red-nosed reindeer, and Vi Boerder concocted a cinnamon bear. Joanna O *** orn, one of Moss's co-designers, has also become uncle mistletoe. She is plump, like Dickens, wearing a red coat and a black hat. With white wings, he flew all over the world and taught children the importance of kindness at Christmas.

Uncle mistletoe's first window display appeared in a series of works called "A Christmas Dream" in 1946. The generous old man came to the North Pole with a pair of young boys and girls to visit Santa Claus. In 1948, Uncle Mistletoe got a company in the form of Aunt Holly, and the couple became a big deal. Over the years, shoppers can buy dolls, books, decorations, colored suits, molded candles, cocktail napkins, hot pads, puppets, glassware, and even used window props.

Over time, window decorators in Field have mastered the art of fake snow (a combination of Jewish salt and ground glass) and detailed electronic animation antics. I remember when the window had a nutcracker theme. Below the big scene describing the main store is a small window, where the little mice are performing a happy version of their own stories.

at their peak, the annual exhibition planning and design started more than one year in advance, and every November, there are eager public waiting for each new theme to be displayed. Tens of thousands of fans made pilgrimages from Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and gathered on serious state streets with childlike awe.

of course, it is a marketing aspect of windows. The delighted audience, full of seasonal spirit, will hopefully pop up in-store shopping. But there are no goods in the exhibition. Like ideas in many festivals, people began to pay attention to spirit, not sales. The brand of this store is not only the goods it sells, these goods have been fluctuating in the past few years. For generations of Chicago families, marshall field's Remembering Marshall Field's and historian Leslie Goddard's Remembering marshall field (""

). Her family has more than 5 years of working experience in marshall field's company.