Welcome to the 8th annual installment of the State Street Showdown, a yearly tradition here at SteveandAmySly.com. This series was started in 2003 to evaluate the holiday windows on State Street here in Chicago. Of course, back then we had numerous stores showcasing their art. Today we're down to just one… Macy's.

Amy & Steve at Chicago's official Christmas tree

Before we jump into the windows themselves, I like to use this introduction post to take a look at Christmas in downtown Chicago.

It was sleeting the night we visited

One of the many shops at Christkindlmarket

Daley Plaza is once again the home of the Christkindlmarket, with its various stalls for food and craft options. There seemed to be quite a few booths all jammed into a small space, which made it seem quite busy. Last year we saw a few booths situated beyond the regular "square" area of the festivities, but this time around everything was centrally located.

Fountain area... with no train!

Once again the model railway was missing from the fountain area, which to me, continues to be a great loss. The booths themselves were situated around the fountain space to hide it from public view. This was a great feature in previous years and I really hope it returns sometime.

Yes, that's a single tree!

This is the 2nd year in a row that Chicago has had a single tree vs. multiple trees stuck together to make up the official 'tree'.   This year's tree was donated by a family from McHenry. It still looks pretty scrawny, and the LED lighting doesn't help much. Still, it's better than no tree at all I guess. We live in a corrupt city, so one can't really be idealistic, right?

Inside the Disney Store on State Street

Various stores are open on Block 37, including a Disney Store on State Street that wasn't there last year. We took some time to explore the location which features a lot of heavily-hyped features I've read are coming to other store.

Video projections on the tree

It surprisingly is a very small location, nothing on par with the flagship over on Michigan Ave. But if you are in the mood for video projections on fake trees, then this Disney Store location is for you!

The Bean (er, I mean "Cloud Gate")

It wasn't long until we moseyed on over to Millennium Park, where "The Bean" was covered in a unique blanket of snow dusting. We always enjoy spending some time watching the ice skaters on the rink below. However, this time around, our watching was delayed as a Zamboni rolled out to resurface the ice.

Resurfacing at McCormick Tribune Plaza & Ice Rink

Knowing that was going to take a while, we walked over to Daley Bicentennial Plaza to the "other ice rink." This is often the ghetto rink among the two, but we tend to find it attracts an audience that is a little more down-to-earth. Of course, wouldn't you know it… they had a Zamboni running there as well!

Resurfacing at Daley Bicentennial Plaza

However, this time around we waited 15-20 minutes for them to resurface the ice, and then proceeded to watch everyone attempt to stay standing when they returned. It's always more fun to watch everyone fall!

The skaters return to the ice!

After a while we returned back to Millennium Park — not by way of the BP Bridge, as it was closed. What's the point of that thing again if you can't really use it in the winter?

Chicago Skyline

Anyway, it is fun to walk through the park in the wintertime, though I still miss the short-lived attempt at hanging lights at the Jay Pritzker Pavillion that we saw back in 2005. That was still pretty awesome!

Amy snaps a quick shot with her Blackberry

Skating once again in Millennium Park

When we returned, the Zamboni had finally wrapped up and we watched the skaters for a while here, along with just catching the sights of Chicago's great skyline at night.

Walnut Room Christmas Tree... TRON Style!

Eventually we made our way over to Macy's to check out what sort of atrocity was sitting in the Walnut Room. I'm glad to say that they didn't disappoint, as it looks like a "TRON + Christmas Tree" or something going on there. They had these LED icicle lights that were animated to look like there was snow falling down the tree. It was… weird. Here's is some video I shot to better understand what I'm talking about:

Apparently the theme is actually "Believe Symphony", which they say ties into the State Street windows as well.

The "symphony" theme makes no sense

Officially, there are "10,000 energy-efficient LED lights, and 1,200 silver, pearlized and black rhinestoned ornaments. Glitter-covered musical instruments surround the base." As you will soon see, I'm not really sure how this actually ties into the theme used on the windows.

That was our quick "Christmas walkaround" one evening in early December. In Part 2, we'll take a look at the holiday windows on State Street, specifically Macy's (since they are the only department store that still does them!)

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