A historical evening walk past Selfridges’ enchanted Christmas windows on Oxford Street, from the Roberts London film first published on 30 October 2014.
Destination Christmas on Oxford Street
Our Selfridges Christmas windows 2014 visit begins with the shop’s great illuminated sign above the entrance. Destination Christmas glows against a blue-lit façade, while strings of small white lights cover the canopy and surround the windows below. On a wet evening, there is colour on the pavement as well as overhead.
In the introduction, I explain that the windows have been unveiled that week. The film was originally published on 30 October 2014, capturing an early arrival of Christmas on Oxford Street. Families are already stopping to look and take photographs.
A storybook house behind the glass
One window contains a brightly coloured, gingerbread-style house. Swirls, sweets and a peaked roof give it the appearance of something lifted from a children’s story. The white lights around the window make a frame for the much brighter colours inside.
Storytelling is the link between the displays. In my introduction, I describe the 2014 theme as enchantment and fairytales, with each window drawing on a storybook world. From the pavement, you can move between those worlds simply by walking to the next pane of glass.
Fashion meets fairytale
Another scene centres on a winged figure, surrounded by reflective surfaces and dramatic lighting. Here, the display feels closer to a fashion tableau, with the figure and its costume becoming part of the fantasy. Passers-by give the scene a sense of scale.
The original description points to Rapunzel’s pink dip-dyed hair and a feathered AF Vandevorst dress among the season’s interpretations. Those details explain the approach: familiar stories provide a starting point for an imaginative department-store window, rather than a straightforward illustration of a book.
Neon colour in the evening rain
Elsewhere, neon-like colours and a bright heart-shaped light change the mood again. A visitor stands beneath an umbrella in front of the glass, with the display lighting the pavement around them. The rain becomes part of the street scene without stopping people from looking.
The film alternates between these individual windows and people moving along the frontage. That gives the visit the feeling of an ordinary evening walk. You see the displays as pedestrians do, sometimes directly and sometimes through the passing crowd.
Stopping for the smaller details
A gold-toned window draws people closer to the glass. In this view, visitors pause in front of the scene, one raising a phone to take a photograph. The display’s smaller objects reward a longer look after the first impression of lights and colour.
This was the response I noticed in the introduction: whole families stopping, staring and photographing the windows. The footage leaves time for that slower part of the visit. Instead of rushing past every display, we can look at the different arrangements and watch the reactions on the pavement.
A blue moon above a boat
One of the most striking scenes places a large blue moon behind a boat. The round, glowing shape stands out from the darker setting, with a seated figure silhouetted in front of it. After the bright house and neon colours, this window has a quieter, theatrical atmosphere.
The camera returns to the variety of the windows rather than treating them as a single continuous design. Warm gold, brilliant pink and cool blue each create a different mood. The repeated border of small white lights holds the frontage together as we continue along it.
Pink and gold in the enchanted windows
A sculptural tree fills another window with pink and gold, curling around a vivid blue centre. Figures and small objects sit within the scene. The scale of the tree turns the display into a little stage, with shoppers passing in front of its illuminated frame.
Seen together, the windows make the season’s storytelling theme clear without needing a long explanation. There is plenty to notice in the textures, oversized shapes and unexpected colours. Much of the film is set to music, leaving the displays themselves to carry the visit after the short introduction.
The illuminated façade and passing traffic
Towards the end, the camera steps back from the windows to take in more of the building. Blue light picks out the upper façade, while passing traffic leaves bright streaks across the view. The closing shots place the window tour back within the busy Oxford Street evening.
Watch the original film below for the full 2014 sequence. For another Christmas display from the same season, see our Fortnum & Mason Christmas windows and extravaganza in 2014.
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