Fortnum & Mason Unveils 2024 Christmas Window Display

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas… in London, anyway. With Halloween out of the way, the floor is finally free for all manner of festive fun – and it’s all kicking off in the capital with Christmas lights, markets and now window displays popping up all over the city. One of the first big names to throw their wreath into the ring is Fortnum & Mason, which has just unveiled its Christmas window display. Here’s what you need to know.

How To See The Fortnum & Mason Christmas Window Display

Is it really Christmas without a few fun window displays? One of our top picks this year comes from Fortnum & Mason, which has just unveiled a festive ‘feast’ for the eyes. ‘Fortnum & Mason’s Christmas windows are renowned for spreading festive joy to everyone who views them,’ says Sallie Smith, Head of Visual Presentation at Fortnum & Mason. ‘This year, our displays are inspired by our beautiful selection of Christmas products, featuring our newly launched packaging. The designs showcase majestic animals and birds, lush foliage, decorative borders, and striking colour combinations. These elements come together to create our 2024 windows, highlighting just how extraordinary a Fortnum’s Christmas can be.’

(c) Jeff Moore

The Story Behind This Year’s Festive Display

This year, Fortnum & Mason has decided to tap into its rich heritage (and bountiful food halls), opting for the theme: ‘Feast of the Season’. Designed around ‘a magical Christmas feast’, each window is packed with festive characters from Fortnum’s new seasonal packaging, set against a backdrop of British flora and fauna.

At the heart of the display is a two-window centrepiece, featuring a charming, golden-antlered deer. Resting in its giant antlers are a flock of delicate paper birds, who are midway through gathering a collection of baubles to decorate their nests.

The remaining six windows are just as festively whimsical, with each one home to a unique winter scene. You’ll spot two squirrels exchanging gifts and sharing a kiss beneath a sprig of swaying mistletoe; a woodland illuminated with sparkling fiberoptic lights and hand-carved owls; a playful hare tugging at one end of Fortnum’s signature Eau de Nil ribbon, while a small mouse scrambles to wrap its gifts at the other end; the Fortnum’s crackerdile (cracker-crocodile, for those unsure) ginning widely as a mouse dances within his open jaws, while another paints his toenails; a fox and pine marten gathered around a beautifully decorated wreath; and finally, a pelican basking in a fountain of sculpted water, being served champagne by a mouse.

(c) Jeff Moore

It’s perhaps the quirkiest festive feast you’ll see this year – but one well worth finding if you’re in the city.

When To Visit

It’s best to visit Fortnum & Mason in the evening if you want to see its illuminated Christmas windows. The department store will also soon introduce late-night shopping hours for the festive season. (So you can grab any last minute gifts after work.) Fortnum & Mason will extend its hours until 9pm from 14 November 2024, and until 10pm from 18 December until 23 December 2024. The store will also open one hour earlier than usual – at 9am – from 18 December until 24 December 2024.

Where: 181 Piccadilly, London W1A 1ER (the nearest tube stations are Green Park and Piccadilly Circus)

For more info, please visit fortnumandmason.com

Images courtesy of Fortnum & Mason