In America’s well-ingrained romantic conception of Christmas, certain ingredients have long been essential: strolling carolers, festive shoppers, colorful lights, roasted chestnuts and, of course, elaborate, animated store-window displays.
To experience that last item in reality, Denverites lately have had to travel to New York City, Chicago and a handful of other cities with department stores willing to invest in such big-budget offerings.
But this year is different.
Through a cooperative venture between Cherry Creek North and the Museum of Outdoor Arts in Englewood, Denver has its own top-level holiday store window for the first time in at least a couple of decades. And it’s generating a buzz locally and nationally.
The 1,000-square-foot display, which occupies three vacant storefronts at 158 Fillmore St., along a pedestrian plaza in Cherry Creek North, stretches 100 feet. It is packed with flashing screens, colorful lights, dazzling decorations and eccentric gizmos.
Neither museum nor shopping district officials would say how much the project cost, but a Cherry Creek North insider put the price tag at $150,000.
“It’s a lot less than the big guys spend,” said Denver artist Lonnie Hanzon, who oversaw the project. “The big guys spend anywhere from a half a million (dollars) to a million, and we were working with a fraction of that.”
How good is this window?
Good enough to be included in HGTV’s annual “Holiday Windows” program, which takes a behind-the-scenes look at the most distinctive displays across the country and sometimes beyond.
This year’s one-hour edition, produced by High Noon Entertainment in Centennial, will air five more times through Dec. 26. It also features Macy’s in Chicago, Lord & Taylor in New York City and Hudson’s Bay Co. in Toronto.
Indeed, it was the possibility of the Denver project being featured on that program that provided the leverage to make it happen, said Hanzon, who serves as creative director for the Museum of Outdoor Arts.
He has a long association with HGTV, having been featured on “Holiday Windows” in 2001-06 with displays for the Neiman Marcus’ flagship store in Dallas. One year, he served as the host of the program.
But even with Hanzon’s track record, it took considerable effort to persuade the network to include Denver, in part because the window is not actually in a department store.
“We had him up all night back in August, putting together a proposal for us that we could then submit to the network to get their approval to include Denver in our show,” said Michelle McDonald, an executive producer with High Noon Entertainment.
Hanzon, known for such public works as “Evolution of the Ball” at Coors Field, began designing windows at the Wizard’s Chest store in Cherry Creek North in the early 1980s. He has overseen store displays in Hong Kong and elsewhere.
In conceiving his holiday window for Cherry Creek North, he did not so much want to abandon tradition as shake it up. He wanted a Victorian flavor but with a decidedly contemporary flair, mixing handcrafted objects with digital imagery.
“I still want kids to put their noses on the glass,” he said. “I still want them to be mesmerized by what is happening.
“I think I’ve run through all the cliches in my career, so I wanted it to be a little less traditional in terms of rotating hands and bobbling figures — typical animation.”
So, forget cute elves teetering on a ladder as they hang lights on a Christmas tree. Or a gift-laden toy train winding its way through a make-believe snowscape.
Instead, Hanzon created a window titled: “Magical Holiday Machines: The Wondrous Keep of Emry Gweldig.” It focuses on an imaginary character who has created an assortment of “wondrous machines” as magical holiday gifts.
Among these whimsical contraptions is the “Joy Juicer,” a bulky apparatus covered in trumpets. According to Hanzon, it is designed to take all the elements of happiness and strain them into bliss, contentment or euphoria.
“We, as human beings, created the holidays as an antidote to the darkness,” he said. “It’s not supposed to be the poison, and I guess I wanted to get that message across. We need to be together and be grateful.”
Cynthia Madden Leitner, president and executive director of the Museum of Outdoor Arts, said the window ideally fulfills its mission of taking art out into the world and making it part of people’s daily lives.
“This gave us an opportunity for the viewer to be outside and the art to be inside, which is kind of a fun juxtaposition,” she said.
Hanzon is ecstatic over how the windows came out, especially considering the constraints he and his crew faced, including tight deadlines.
“I’ve done several hundred windows in my career, and I’m happy with these,” he said. “They’re fun, and we had a good time doing ’em, and I think the intention comes through.
“I’ve been afforded the opportunity to do work all over the world, which has been great. But up until recently I’ve not always been able to work in Denver, so for me, I’m on cloud nine.”
Kyle MacMillan: 303-954-1675 or kmacmillan@denverpost.com
“Magical Holiday Machines: The Wondrous Keep of Emry Gweldig”
Holiday display. 158 Fillmore St., Cherry Creek North. An animated, multimedia window display conceived by artist Lonnie Hanzon, creative director of the Museum of Outdoor Arts in Englewood. Through Jan. 4. 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Free. 303-806-0444 or .
“Holiday Windows”
Television. HGTV. A one-hour behind- the-scenes look at the creation of top holiday store windows across the country, including one in Cherry Creek North. 3 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Wednesday, 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday and midnight Dec. 26. .
