Macy's Flower Show 2019

The heavy rains this Winter and Spring have brought a mass of blooms to California this year. But the desert isn't the only place experiencing a blast of color. Macy's right here in San Francisco is in full bloom at the moment thanks to the annual Spring Flower Show.

This week the kids and I headed into the city to check out this year's displays. Macy's annual Spring Flower Show is always one of my favorite events of the year and despite a little construction work going on in the store, the displays were as beautiful as ever.

Every year the Flower Show features a different theme. In past years we've seen woodland fairytale, hidden urban garden, carnival, fine art, and Americana themed displays. This year's Flower Show, "Journey to Paradisios" features a space theme with astronauts, aliens and rocket ships throughout the store.

This year's display is a little smaller than previous years due to construction work in the accessories department, but there is still plenty to see with the main displays located in the cosmetics and fragrances departments, as well as smaller displays on other floors.

Here's a look at this years Flower Show...

Macy's Spring Flower Show 2018

Every Spring selected Macy's stores around the country celebrate the coming of the new season with a beautiful flower show. San Francisco's flagship store is one such location for this display, and every year I make sure to check it out. This year's show is on right now, so Mathilde and I headed into the city to check it out.

Each year the flower show is based on a particular theme. This year's theme is "Once Upon a Springtime" and features magical fairy tale inspired displays with woodland creatures, a dragon, knights, a castle and a big pink throne for visitors to sit on. The displays are mostly located on the first floor through the cosmetics and accessories departments, and change from Winter to Spring as you walk through the store. 

Let's take a look...

First up, Mathilde and I checked out the window displays on O'Farrell and Stockton Streets. Mathilde was captivated by the cute creatures hidden among the toadstools and flowers. The corner window contains a giant book and a waterfall, but given the harsh sun during the time we visited I was not able to capture this well in a photo. You'll just have to go see for yourself!

 

Macy's Flower Show 2017

Last week Mathilde and I took a trip into the city to visit Macy's for the annual Flower Show. The Macy's Flower Show is something I looked forward to seeing every Spring and this year's display did not disappoint - although there were a few scary clowns! Clowns, you ask? Well, every year the Flower Shows features a different theme and this year's theme is carnival, so the displays are filled with clowns, carousel horses, vintage arcade games and side show novelties. Let's take a look...

Macy's Flower Show 2016

On Friday Mathilde and I took a trip into the city to see the Macy's Flower Show at the San Francisco store. 

Each year, Macy's celebrates the arrival of Spring with an amazing flower show held in several of their stores around the country. This year's flower show marks the 70th anniversary of this beautiful event and the theme, America the Beautiful, couldn't be more fitting.

Visiting Santa 2015

Last weekend we spent a day in the city doing a little festive sight seeing. First up we visited the Fairmont Hotel to see the Giant Gingerbread House and then the Westin St Francis Hotel to see the Sugar Castle. You can see them both here. 

Our next stop was Macy's to go see Santa and tell him our Christmas wishes

Macy's Flower Show 2015

Earlier this week we headed into the city to check out the Macy's Flower Show. Each year, to celebrate the arrival of Spring, Macy's hold a flower show in many of their stores around the country. The flower show in San Francisco's Union Square store is always beautiful. This year's theme, Art in Bloom, brings together the worlds of art and floral design.

Visiting Santa at Macy's

Friday's advent voucher was the one that the girls' look forward to the most out of the whole calendar: the voucher to visit Santa at Macy's.

We headed into the city in the evening after Ava's skateboarding class and the girls couldn't wait to see Santa. As usual Ava and Lola were a little nervous when it actually came time to go talk to Santa but Mathilde was pretty intrigued and happy to go sit on his lap. The big girls warmed to him pretty quickly and in no time they were telling him about all the things they'd like for Christmas: a tv, puppies, American Girl accessories, a computer, a chess set...

Macy's Flower Show

Yesterday the girls and I visited Macy's in San Francisco to see the annual Macy's Flower Show.

Each Spring the ground floor of Macy's on Union Square is decorated with a mass of blooms above the make up, jewellery and accessories counters. Each year the show features a different theme. This year's theme was The Secret Garden; hidden gardens in an urban environment.  

Here's a look at the floral displays throughout the store...

A visit to Santaland 2013

Yesterday's advent calendar activity was the one that the girls had been waiting for: visiting Santa at Macy's. They could not wait to go see the man in red and tell him in person that they'd like American Girl dolls for Christmas.

After school we headed to Macy's to visit Santa in Santaland. It may have been cold, windy and pouring with rain but that wasn't going to stop us in our quest to see Santa. The gloomy weather combined with the train ride did send Lola off to sleep though which meant that she was a little grumpy when we arrived.

Grumpy Lola ready to escape from Santa

A visit to Santaland

Day 3 on our advent calendar was home to the voucher that Ava had most eagerly awaited: Visit Santa at Macy's!

"Visit Santa at Macy's" - the voucher we've been waiting for!

For weeks Ava has been asking if we can go see Santa. For weeks I've been telling her that she has to wait until it comes up in the advent calendar. You can imagine how excited she was when she saw the name Santa on the voucher. She couldn't read the rest of it but she recognised that one word and that was all she needed!

So, last night after Ava's iceskating lesson (and Holiday Ice Spectacular rehearsal) we headed to Macy's to meet the man.

Ava was pretty excited but Lola was a little apprehensive, especially after seeing a particularly seedy looking Santa here in Berkeley last week! The REAL Santa at Macy's however, is friendly and inviting and engages with the kids in a way that really warms them to him. Ava popped up on his lap straight away and started reeling off the list of things that she'd like for Christmas: an electric dog called Bouncy, a scooter, a fortune cookie maker... Lola hung back a little and when asked what she'd like for Christmas she yelled across the room "A present and a ball and a toy truck"!

After a little while Lola felt more comfortable with Santa and was happy to stand in front of him and pose for photos - but only if she could be on the same side as Ava. For the first time ever we ended up with photos of both girls smiling with Santa. Woo hoo!


Here's a look at the girls with Santa.

Our "official" Santa portrait

My Advent Calendar 2012

Yesterday I shared my friend Daniela's fantastic advent calendar garland. Now it's time for a look at our advent calendar for this year...

Do you remember the advent calendar that we used last year? You can see it here. This advent calendar was purchased from my favourite Swedish stationery store Kikki.K before we left Australia last year. I really wish that Kikki.K would open stores here in America. Anyway, I'm getting side tracked...

I love the simplicity of this advent calendar. The design is minimalistic and modern while still festive with its red and white colour theme. As with last year I have made vouchers for holiday activities to include in the advent calendar. Last year's vouchers were very simple (hand written on card) as my craft supplies, computer, printer etc were still in transit from Australia.

This year I decided to design something a little more stylish for the advent calendar. Keeping with the simplicity of the calendar I went for a simple, modern design: blackboard background, red banner, white text and fine white borders. To help the girls pull each voucher out of the advent calendar I added some red and white baker's twine as a pull string. Nothing fancy but I think it goes quite well with the calendar.

Christmas activity vouchers ready for the advent calendar

That Fat, Jolly Old Fellow

Day 8 on our advent calendar was the day that Ava was hanging out for. The day to visit Santa!

Santa lives in Santa Land at Macy's here in San Francisco. After preschool on Friday the girls dressed in their Christmas skirts and we ventured into town. I had expected that it would be pretty busy even though it was a school day so I was very surprised when we arrived at Santa Land and there was no queue. Wait a minute... where's the 2 hour long queue that the Magic Cave perpetually has?

Arriving to find no queue for Santa was only the first pleasant surprise.

Before we went in I read through the photo packages available and got my purse out to pay for the cheapest one when the sales associate (I love that title) advised me that I didn't have to pay until after we saw Santa and were happy with the photos that they had taken for us. If we didn't like the photos we didn't have to buy any. Fantastic!

The best surprise, however, came when we went in to visit Santa and I was told that I was allowed to take my own photos. Woo hoo! Take that Magic Cave. Santa Land wins!

Now, when it came time to see Santa I had a feeling there might be mixed reactions from the girls. Ava was pretty excited to see Santa but was a little nervous to begin with. She was happy to talk to him though and asked for Squinkies for Christmas. No long list full of expensive gifts this year!

Ava tells Santa that she has been a good girl

Letters to Santa

Day 4 on our advent calendar and the voucher entitled Ava and Lola to send letters to Santa at Macy's.
We posted the letters to Santa at Macy's rather than a mailbox on the street as they are donating $1 to the Make a Wish for each letter received.

Ava thought long and hard about what she wanted to write on her letter to Santa. In the end she decided to go with just Squinkies and a Zhu Zhu Pet. Anyone out there without a young daughter will have no idea what I'm talking about. Keep it that way!

Ava's letter to Santa

I asked Ava what she thought Lola might like to ask Santa for and the response (which was dictated to me for Lola's letter) was : "Some little baby toys, but a little bit big. That's because I am a one year old". Well, that's nice and clear for Santa!

Once the letters were ready we headed into Macy's to post them. I love that they have have a dedicated mail box for letters to Santa and especially love that there are two chutes: one up high for big kids like Ava and one down low for the littlest kids like Lola.

Ava and Lola prepare to post their letters

 After the letters to Santa were posted the girls checked out the view over Union Square from Macy's.

Ava and Lola look out over Union Square

Lola watches people ice skating

Union Square from the 7th floor of Macy's

The giant Christmas tree, people ice skating, and even the breakdancing Santas give such a festive feel to Union Square. There's something about Christmas in winter that just feels more festive; more magical. Even if it's not white. All of our Christmas traditions make so much more sense in cooler weather.
Plus American cities go all out when it comes to the holidays. Christmas meets you at every turn in San Francisco, but as all of the decorations only went up after Thanksgiving, it still feels fresh and new.

Could also be because it IS all fresh and new for us. Everything is still an adventure...