The old ritual of looking at department store windows filled with twinkling, animatronic displays has nearly faded. But it turns out to also be a good socially distant activity for 2020.
For 11 years now, businesses in the Central West End have taken care to decorate their windows for the holiday season, in an effort to attract and entertain shoppers. Then the creative minds at the St. Louis Shakespeare Festival and PaintedBlack STL, a new collective of Black artists, got the idea to add more windows and incorporate a hip-hop version of “A Christmas Carol.”
The neighborhood couldn’t say no.
“They approached us, and we said, ‘Absolutely,’” says Kate Haher, director of the Central West End’s Community Improvement District. “It’s a really fun idea.”