For generations of Chicagoans, Marshall Stadium meant business and Christmas.

Since 2005, marshall field Department Store in Chicago has stopped celebrating Christmas, but as long as the name is mentioned, any local people in the windy city will think of it. During the festival, it will bring them back to the childhood wonders of the flagship shopping center in the city center: looking up at the glittering decorations on the branches of towering evergreen trees and walnut trees. Winding along, go to the comfortable cloud cabin and wait with Santa Claus for a while. I was surprised by the elaborate holiday window on the state street and tasted the first bite of Frango Mint in marshall field, 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 as for shoppers all over the country, they cherish family-owned department stores rooted in the city center. There are movies in Boston, Ricky in Atlantis, Hudson in Troy, Harley in Cleveland and wanamaker in Philadelphia. Although they were originally regarded 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.

There is no more real time 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 memory.

But how do these retail stores inspire this wonderful feeling? This is a question that historians who grew up in Chicago are very fascinated by. In Chicago, Marshall Field is a part of the city soul, just like 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 Hall 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 bell and put up the slogan "Field Department Store is Chicago-Macy's Department Store". Since 2005, they have set up picket lines there every autumn. This year's slogan is: "If the Cubs win the World Series, marshall field can go back to Chicago."

Christmas is not a holiday anywhere in America. Porter Palmer 1852 came to Chicago and opened a dry goods store. By the beginning of this century, his successors, marshall field and Levi Wright (who later became 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 allow shoppers to stay in this building and reach for their wallets.

However, Christmas receives little attention. This store has finally started advertising Christmas cards and gifts. 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 1907. This shop has just opened in a new memorial building featuring walnut houses. It is reported that the restaurant staff hung a small Christmas tree at 1934.

This 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 evergreen trees for children, it takes 18 decorators and three-layer scaffolding, which seems to extend all the way to the sky.

For decades, department stores like marshall field have adopted more and more complicated strategies to attract customers. 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 air. In the dazzling display of holiday spirit, Field's heart conveys Merry Christmas from top to bottom.

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

This field has every reason 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.

19 10 Due to the improvement of glass manufacturing technology, huge transparent panels can be made. Shops all over the United States began to install exquisite 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. However, on 1944, the new stylist of this store, John Moss, gave up this hard sales and turned to the narrative window to recreate Clement Moore's A Visit from Saint Nicholas. Storyboards were so popular that they were reused the next year.

Soon a new holiday window trend became popular: the unique mascot of the store. Montgomery Ward claimed Rudolph was a reindeer with a red nose, and Vi Bode cooked a cinnamon bear. Joanna O *** orn, one of Moss's co-designers, also became 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 1946' s Christmas Dream series. The generous old man came to the North Pole with a pair of young boys and girls to visit Santa Claus. 1948, Uncle Mistletoe got a company in the form of Aunt Holly, and the couple became big shots. Over the years, shoppers can buy dolls, books, decorations, colorful suits, molded candles, cocktail napkins, hot pads, puppets, glassware and even used window props.

As time goes by, the window decorators at the scene have mastered the art of artificial snow (a combination of Jewish salt and ground glass) and detailed electronic animation antics. I remember when there was a nutcracker theme in the window. Below the big scene describing the main store is a small window, and the little mice are performing happy versions of their own stories.

At their peak, the annual exhibition planning and design started more than one year in advance, and every year in June165438+1October, there was an 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 in solemn state streets with childlike awe.

Of course, it is a marketing aspect of windows. The joyful audience, full of seasonal spirit, is expected to suddenly appear in the store for shopping. But there are no goods in the exhibition. Like 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 Remember marshall field and historian Leslie Goddard's Remember marshall field (

"" )。 Her home is in Marshall Field.

The company has more than 50 years of working experience.