books, books, and more books… I love the anticipation that builds every year as we wait for the windows to be revealed at the original flagship store of Neiman Marcus on Main Street downtown. It’s a big to do. People come from all over the city with their hot chocolate and scarves to stand in the streets and their eyes sparkle as the NM Christmas tree is unveiled (it almost always seems to turn cold just in time). This year in particular was a real spectacle with a twist. It’s all about innovation and you can read all the details below. It’s a massive effort of book collecting which is just spectacular but the coolest part is that children (under a certain height) can crawl through the windows!! Their parents watch on monitors called kid-camz disguised as lab monitors. Every inch of it is cool from the moment you are greeted by the gal in the lab coat with the huge round black glasses…

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Six children from St. Philips School and Community Center and Reconciliation Outreach helped inspire Neiman Marcus’ holiday windows by writing stories about future energy sources.  Neiman Marcus’ Vice President of Planning and Development, Ignaz Gorischek, brings these stories to life in the window display at Main and Ervay Streets.

Children 4 to 10 yrs old will be able to experience the windows like never before by crawling through nearly 80 feet of tubing and seeing the stories from the inside out.

Inside the stories. This unique experience will be enjoyed in an 80 ft custom designed crawl tube that includes 42 view port windows. It is an Unparalleled journey, one in which the children see the story from the inside out.

The aim is multifaceted in that Neiman Marcus hopes to entertained and educate through graphics, sound, music and storytelling. At one point in the journey, children will be able to share their own energy by “dancing” inside a window. This energy will be visible to others.

They didn’t let me go in, even though I tried, but I at least got to sit in the entry of the tube — wishing I could go through it!

These are the theories children will experience in each “laboratory” throughout the windows:

Math Energy: This child thinks that adding, subtracting and multiplication problems can actually create energy.

Music Energy: This child thinks the sky is the limit if all the music in the world could be could be captured, then dispersed.

Peanut Energy: This child is thinking about transportation in a new way. Crush up peanuts, feed them to elephants… and then the elephants can fly and take people places.

Grape Energy: Monkeys are busy animals, so this child thinks if we could get them to crush grapes for us, then inject the grape juice into the soles of our shoes, then we could fly.

Dance Energy: This dancing youngster knows that dancing takes energy and produces energy.

Kindness Energy: This child believes that we get more energy the kinder we are to one another. This scene in the window shows children doing kind acts, thus increasing their “kindness battery.”

HOLIDAY BUFFET
The Zodiac
Now through January 2  // 10:45 am to 3 pm  //  Reservations strongly recommended, 214.573.5800.

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PHOTOS WITH SANTA
Main Floor
$15 per photo  //  December 1 – 24  //  11:30 am to 4 pm  //  Sundays, Noon, to 4 pm  //  Christmas Eve, 11:30 am to 3 pm

Closed Monday December 7

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INNOVATIONS IN ENERGY: HOLIDAY WINDOWS
Main Street and Ervay Street
For the first time in Neiman Marcus history, and likely the first time anywhere, children between the ages of 4 and 10 years old can go inside the windows through a creative crawl tube. NM design teams asked children from St. Philip’s School and Community Center and Reconciliation Outreach to write stories about future energy sources we’ve brought six of these inspiring scenes to life. Don’t miss this very special holiday display.

December 3 - 6  //  Noon to 4 pm
December 10 - 26  //  Noon to 4 pm
Closed Christmas Day
Sunday, December 27  //  1 to 4 pm

For details on special events, reservations and Holiday Window hours at NM Downtown, call 214.741.6911.

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More details on First Book: First Book Holiday Tree, made of over 13,000 books! NM and First Book partnered to get these books, and thousands of others, to NM stores across the country. Also in the flagship store is an installation in the shoe salon of over 30,000 books. Each NM is working on its own sculpture in support of First Book. (photo credit - Nan Coulter) * Press Release copy: Make a $25.00 donation to First Book, during the December InCircle event at Neiman Marcus and receive a $50.00 gift card. Customers can also enjoy book installations and sculptures in every Neiman Marcus location in celebration of this partnership. First Book provides new books to children in need – addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books. All of the books used in these installations will be donated to different community and children’s organizations nationwide by First Book. First Book provides new books to children in need, addressing one of the most important factors affecting literacy – access to books. An innovative leader in social enterprise, First Book has distributed more than 65 million free and low cost books in thousands of communities. First Book now has offices in the U.S. and Canada. For more information about the nonprofit First Book please visit www.firstbook.org. For more information about the nonprofit First Book please visit www.firstbook.org or call 866-393-1222.