Across department stores, thousands of glimmering Christmas lights and extravagant window displays are doing the work to beckon in customers and brighten up a potentially gloomy season. Consumer budgets are tighter, luxury’s rebound isn’t expected to fully come to fruition until next year, and the Trump administration’s tariff policy has thrown pricing strategies into disarray.
The pressure is on for the ever-important fourth-quarter holiday sales season to deliver. Retailers are pulling out all the stops and coming up with ways to drum up sales without relying heavily on promotions, which eat further into margins at a time when supply chain costs are rising.
Vogue Business surveyed the holiday plans of six key retailers in the US, the UK and Ireland — Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Selfridges, Harrods, Liberty and Brown Thomas — to find out how they’re gussying up their store displays, gathering the most giftable assortments and positioning themselves as go-to destinations in what’s sure to be a complex and competitive shopping season.
Bloomingdale’s: From scarves to Santa
A giant Burberry check scarf hugs Bloomingdale’s 59th Street façade. Inside the store, you’ll find a crimson-check capsule spanning graphic tees to beanies, collectible Burberry-dressed holiday bears and a branded takeover at rotating retail space The Carousel. The British brand is “co-author” of Bloomingdale’s immersive holiday experience, a partnership that came out of “a shared desire to build a holiday moment that feels both iconic and joyful”, according to Rachel Abeles, Bloomingdale’s SVP of customer and revenue growth.
“The holidays are when people want to feel connected — to family, to tradition, to each other,” says Abeles. This sense of togetherness is the crux of the US department store’s Happy Together holiday campaign, which emphasizes the cross-generational and emotive aspects of festive consumption. “Customers aren’t just searching for gifts during the holiday season, they’re searching for moments that feel special and experiences that augment their lives.” For 2025, the level of brand integration — and immersion — at Bloomingdale’s flagship is the deepest yet. Aside from the Burberry activations, Canada Goose has staged a holiday pop-up featuring heritage and archival pieces, Baccarat has overhauled content studio-slash-cocktail bar Studio 59, while Santaland, to which visits have become tradition for many, has undergone a reimagining.
According to Abeles, the fourth quarter of the year is when the retailer welcomes almost half of its annual customer base, who engage across channels. “Digital is our front door; it fuels relevance, acquisition and discovery early in the season. But stores are where our brand emotion lives, they’re where the loyalty deepens,” she says. This year at Bloomingdale’s, the holidays are about creating multi-touchpoint destinations that offer something for everyone.
Nordstrom: Embracing nostalgia
What makes a good gift? That was a central question Nordstrom aimed to answer when it began planning its holiday strategy this year. “There has to be a story behind a good gift,” says chief merchandising officer Jamie Nordstrom. “You want to be able to tell someone why you bought it.”
Nordstrom expects high demand for cashmere, Skims pajamas, Uggs, Jo Malone perfume and Beats by Dre headphones. To make shopping for these — and more — as easy as possible, it has carved out first-floor spaces across its stores dedicated to gifting, with picks for kids, teens and adults within easy reach. Nordstrom — which has a bit more freedom this Christmas as its first since the company was taken private — is putting the emphasis on physical retail in an attempt to boost margins, offering free pictures with Santa for loyalty members and a campaign focused on holiday shopping as discovery rather than a chore.
“The one thing our website is really good at is when you know what you want to buy; it’s efficient. But there are a lot of occasions when you just want to shop and find something new, something we didn’t know we wanted to have. Stores are really good at that, the serendipitous find,” Nordstrom says.
Price promotions are a smaller part of the holiday strategy this year, but Nordstrom points to the under-$50 gift selection. “There’s a lot of data that shows that’s where people are buying, that’s the magic number so far this season, and we’ve focused on that,” he says. For those in that budget range, items like a Voluspa candle or the Nodpod weighted sleep mask are front and center. The retailer will reassess sales performance in January, item by item, Nordstrom says, to see how tariffs might have factored into the holiday season.
Selfridges: The perfect partner
This Christmas marks the first holiday season to see British department store Selfridges take on a brand collaborator: Disney. From November through December, its Oxford Street windows, as well as those of its Manchester and Birmingham outposts, will be covered in Disney animations, while its shelves stocked with bespoke products created by Selfridges, Disney and over 70 brand partners. The iconic yellow bag has also been transformed for the first time since its 2009 centenary, and the London store’s façade is hosting a Tinker Bell light show — the biggest installation to feature on the building for over 50 years.
“We leaned into lots of the British classics, like Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians, and these inform the creative on everything from our windows to the façade to the product,” Selfridges creative director Will Wyness told Vogue Business before launch. For him, Christmas is Selfridges’s biggest time of the year, so it felt like the best platform for it to tell those stories. The collaboration has been two years in the making. “It was a big decision for us internally, because we’ve never had a headline collaborator for Christmas. [But] Disney’s been a big part of everyone’s life.”
In partnering with Disney, Selfridges can tap into the cozy magic that’s historically underpinned the brand and its familiarity with the festive period. “We wanted to have a conversation where our worlds meet each other,” said Wyness. “From product through to the kind of overarching storytelling and marketing.”
Harrods: Immersive storytelling
Harrods is doubling down on storytelling this festive season. The London-based department store has partnered with Brunello Cucinelli on its key window display, while outside the store, the Brunello Cucinelli Visionary Dream Van is serving up traditional panettone and winter beverages to passersby. “Physical retail is about creating moments that stay with you — and Harrods must always deliver that ‘wow’ moment. This year, we’re focusing on a tactile and elegant approach — from the grandeur of our windows to intimate in-store experiences that invite wonder,” says Alex Unitt, partnership director at Harrods. “It’s about transforming shopping into an experience, where customers connect with the brands they love.”
Harrods anticipates beauty and toys to perform well this season, especially as a broad range of customers from different countries, age groups and lifestyles flock to the flagship during the holidays. “Our dedicated Popmart and Jellycat spaces will undoubtedly attract significant attention, offering unique collectibles that resonate with a younger audience. Ultimately, the season is about diversity and discovery, and Harrods is the go-to place for both,” says Unitt. “While we remain mindful of macroeconomic factors, we’ve doubled down on exclusivity and craftsmanship. Customers are increasingly discerning, seeking pieces that resonate and stand the test of time. This season, that philosophy is more relevant than ever.”
Liberty London: Emotional connection and playfulness
London department store Liberty is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2025. Outgoing managing director Sarah Coonan has set the challenge that this year must “exceed all expectations”. To make that a reality, the store landed on The Making of Christmas as its holiday concept. From the campaign and window display, to the central atrium installation and e-commerce site, Christmas visuals follow a mischievous elf behind the scenes at Santa’s workshop.
“We’ve spent the year talking about the importance of artistry and craftsmanship, and who better than Santa’s elves — the ultimate artisans — to be the central theme of our story,” says Coonan. “When sentiment is cautious, people tend to gravitate toward what’s meaningful. For us, that’s a celebration of craftsmanship, our history and the sense of discovery a customer gets from Liberty.”
Coonan expects the store’s popular diaries and scarves (featuring Liberty’s heritage floral and graphic art) to perform well, especially with price-conscious consumers. Fragrance is also expected to outperform. “People want value, they want something that’s beautifully made and timeless,” she says. “We have strong values that go beyond commercial results. Success this year would look at measures of engagement — it’s really about that emotional connection with our customer.”
Brown Thomas: Personalized and exclusive
Irish department store chain Brown Thomas’s holiday strategy centers on deepening customer loyalty and elevating experience. “Irish customers are among the most engaged in the world, visiting us nearly five times a year on average, more than double comparable markets — and we are building a season that reflects that level of connection,” says Donald McDonald, CEO of Brown Thomas Arnotts. This year, the retailer is launching its This is Christmas campaign, alongside a new paid membership program called Inner Circle. McDonald says this will allow it to bring “a more personalized, privilege-driven and exclusive Christmas experience to our customers”.
This holiday season will also be Brown Thomas’s most immersive yet. “We’ve built a richer program of luxury brand activations, curated pop-ups and intimate in-store events — all designed to bring the season’s creativity and storytelling to life,” McDonald says. This will include exclusive capsule drops and limited-edition collaborations, masterclasses and gifting experiences across fashion, beauty and home.
McDonald says its customers value convenience, seamless omnichannel shopping and trusted in-store advice, so categories that support easy, thoughtful gifting — beauty and fragrance included — tend to lead the season. “We’re also seeing strong engagement with our brand activations and pop-ups, which give customers a sense of discovery and excitement when they visit our stores,” he says. “The atmosphere within Brown Thomas is a major draw in itself — from the grand piano to our globally recognized singing doorman, whose performances go viral each year. Those moments of warmth, service and theater are a powerful part of what brings customers back throughout the festive period.”
