For millions of people the annual visit to a department store to view the festive window displays and visit Saint Nicholas in his winter wonderland is a treasured holiday tradition. But how did holiday traditions like this begin? Author William L. Bird, Jr. traces their evolution as holiday decorations moved from shop windows to building exteriors and out into the street in the form of parade floats. Packed with rarely seen photographs, Holidays on Display makes it easy to see why we have such lasting emotional attachments to animated Christmas windows, passing parades, and the ambient glow of holiday lights.