The 12 Days of Chicago, Day 7: The decorated city
If you spend anytime at all in Chicago during the holiday season, you know that this town goes all out when decorating for Christmas. Throughout the city, from Michigan Avenue, to the loop, to downtown buildings; everywhere you look has the Christmas spirit.
Therefore, one of the best things you can do to get in the holiday spirit in Chicago is just go for a walk. It is difficult not to get excited about decorating your own tree or wrapping some gifts after seeing how beautifully decorated the city is each year. The best part is that looking at decorations is free.
Michigan Avenue is decorated with millions of lights starting with the lights festival, and the rest of the city is not lacking in the lights department either. The outside of hotels throughout the city are also covered in lights, as are the majority of trees in the medians throughout downtown. Even the statues outside of the Board of the Trade get into the act, each lady holding a Christmas wreath.
Macy’s department store, in addition to its window display, also decorates the outside of its store for Christmas (see below).
Here are a couple of others stores with decorations: TJ Maxx/Filene’s Basement/Body Shop building and Sears.
I previously mentioned the giant tree at Daley Plaza, but they also have this nativity scene:
Even the CTA gets in on the action, such as this el station on State Street which features a holiday train atop its entryway:
So one day on your way home from work or when you are rushing around, trying to finish your shopping, take a minute to slow down and look around. Taking in all the beautiful decorations is one of the things that makes Chicago great at Christmastime.
This post is part of the 12 days of Chicago series, which brings you 12 fun and interesting things that you can do for the holidays in Chicago. In conjunction with the series, this blog is sponsoring a holiday contest, which you can read about here.
Chicago, Daley Plaza, Chicago Christmas, Nativity, Macy’s
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