Fans wrap around the block for the last days of Philly’s Wanamaker Light Show

More than 73,000 visited Wanamakers in the first three weeks of the revived Christmas light show, for what could be its final season.

Visitors fill the Grand Court at the Wanamaker Building in Center City Philadelphia for the traditional Christmas light show. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Fans wrap around the block for the last days of Philly’s Wanamaker Light Show

More than 73,000 visited Wanamakers in the first three weeks of the revived Christmas light show, for what could be its final season.

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These may be the final days of the Wanamaker Building’s Christmas pageantry.

The Light Show, narrated by Julie Andrews in the Grand Court, and the Dickens Village tableau of the story of “A Christmas Carol” have now returned to the building, which is mostly vacant since Macy’s left last spring.

The holiday festivities have been an annual tradition for generations of Philadelphians. Joseph Gallo has been coming every year for 39 years, first as a 2-year-old with his parents and now with his own children as a three-generation group.

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“We were freaking out when we heard that Macy’s stopped,” Gallo said.  “We were Googling it constantly till we saw that it was opening back up.”

Animatronic figures at the Wanamaker Building
Animatronic figures dance on Christmas morning in one of 26 scenes from ''A Christmas Carol'' at the Dickens Village at the Wanamaker Building. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

The Gallo family were among 73,000 people who have come to the Wanamaker Building since the holiday spectacle opened Nov. 28.

“It has totally exceeded our expectations,” said Kathryn Ott Lovell, president and CEO of the Philadelphia Visitor’s Center, which spearheaded the effort to bring back the Light Show and Dickens Village in the absence of Macy’s.

“The day before we opened on Thanksgiving I was really nervous that nobody might come if there was no Macy’s,” she said. “Would it draw people into the Wannamaker building without a major department store? Turns out we didn’t have a lot of reason to be, because it has been massively popular.”

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Children watching the Christmas Light Show at the Wanamaker Building.
Scarlett Sandor, 7, (center) settles in with her sister, Amelia, 4, and cousin, Nathan Doerr, 10, to watch the Christmas Light Show in the Grand Court of the Wanamaker Building. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

The Visitor’s Center raised $500,000 to deck the halls of Wanamaker’s, organize a vendor pop-up market and hire about 50 seasonal workers to staff the daily event.

The floor of Wanamaker’s Grand Court has a crowd capacity of 1,000 people. The free 12-minute light show is scheduled to run once an hour on the half-hour, but Ott Lovell said they sometimes have to run it twice an hour because the line of people stretched out the door and around the block.

“We see lines that go down Market and down Juniper. This past Saturday, they went all the way down to Chestnut,” she said. “I worked the line with a bullhorn just to make sure people know what’s happening and why they’re in line.”

Greeter welcomes visitors to the Wanamaker Building in center city
Ernie Bristow welcomes visitors to the Wanamaker Light Show and Dickens Village, held in the fomer Macy's in Center City. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Tickets to the 6,000-square-foot Dickens Village walkthrough tableau are released five days in advance. Ott Lovell said they sell out within minutes.

“It’s a little bit like Taylor Swift tickets right now,” she said.

For the next two holiday seasons, the Wanamaker will go dark as it undergoes redevelopment. Owner TF Cornerstone has submitted plans to build most of the space formerly occupied by Macy’s as individual retail stores and retain the five-story Grand Court and pipe organ.

The fate of the Wanamaker Light Show and Dickens Village are uncertain. Ott Lovell has high hopes the building’s owner will allow some kind of public holiday event in the newly redeveloped building.

Crowd enjoying the Christmas light show at the Wanamaker Building
Young and old enjoy the Christmas light show in the Grand Court of the Wanamaker Building in Center City, Philadelphia. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

“I’m confident that there’s a great intent there,” she said. “I don’t think they even know what the exact plan is for the building and who their tenants are going to be and what the exact feasibility will be. We have proven that it means a whole heck of a lot to people.”

Could the Light Show and Dickens Village be relocated to another building?

“That’s a big question mark,” Ott Lovell said. “We just don’t know at this point.”

The bronze eagle in the Grand Court at the Wanamaker Building
The bronze eagle in the Grand Court at the Wanamaker Building towers over visitors who have flocked to the former Macy's department store for the Cristmas light show. (Emma Lee/WHYY)

Gallo said Christmas without Wanamaker’s would be devastating.

“It’s going to be awful if they stop this,” he said. “It’s been a family tradition for 39 years. We want it to keep going.”

The Wanamaker Light Show runs daily from noon to 8 p.m., once an hour on the half-hour, until Christmas Eve when it runs from noon to 4 p.m.

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