To celebrate the season, we’re featuring a series on holiday traditions in American cities. Join us over the next couple weeks for the grand scale of creativity, diversity, twinklity, sprucity, and glority with which Americans adorn their cities at this wintrous time! (Don’t bother looking any of those words up.)
Philadelphia, PA

Macy’s Light Show, Philadelphia
The iconic tradition in the nation’s historic capital is the Macy’s Christmas Light Show, formerly named for the now-defunct Philadelphia department store, John Wanamaker. Featuring narration by Julie Andrews, the sounds of the famous Wanamaker Organ, and more than 100,000 multicoloured lights, the Light Show presents popular Christmas stories to the delight of the city’s children.
Location: 1300 Market Street
2012 Schedule:
Friday, November 23rd thru Sunday, December 23rd: 10am-8pm inclusive.
Monday, December 24th: 10am-5pm
Tuesday, December 25th: Closed
Wednesday, December 26th – Saturday, December 29th: 10am-7pm
Sunday, December 30th: 11am-6pm
Monday, December 31st: 10am-5pm
Travelling to America? Start here.
There’s no better place than the 2AD Memorial Library to find American travel guides. We have books on all fifty states, often several for each state, as well as guides for major U.S. cities. Our collection of oversized photography books is a great place to start planning.