This is the best NYC holiday window for Christmas 2024

They’re grinning and bearing it.

The city’s most spectacular holiday window is not at one of the big department stores, but at Ralph Lauren’s Upper East Side flagship. There, a 5-meter-tall interactive 3D rendition of the label’s iconic Polo Bear delights passers-by with its animated antics—so much so that people often FaceTime from the window to friends.

“I’ve never seen anything like this bear before,” said Ashley Henderson, a 22-year-old from Milford, New Jersey, who was visiting the town with her mother on Monday. “It’s so cute.”

The tuxedoed bear takes his cues from the audience. When spectators come within two feet of the window on 72nd Street in Madison and wave to the bear, it begins to move, sipping a martini, playing the piano, dancing and blowing kisses. He’ll even pose for selfies – turning his back to the audience and pulling out a phone to take a photo – for those who are patient.

Henderson had to wait a few minutes, but the bear went into selfie mode.

“I’m definitely going to put it on Snapchat,” she told the Post.

As she headed to Rockefeller Center to see more windows, she anticipated being disappointed by other festive displays.

“I’ll be sad if I see a window that doesn’t interact with me,” she said.

According to Ralph Lauren, it took six months to develop the installation together with CINIMOD, a studio that specializes in interactive and immersive experiences and is based in London – where a similar high-tech window is bringing joy to shoppers in Christmas. The bear is powered by a custom-made AI model that makes everything look incredibly real.

Even jaded Manhattanites can’t resist its charms.

Jason Wendell, 48, an FDNY captain who works near the store, makes it a point to walk by and interact with the bear every day.

“Is the bear my friend?” he said. “We are getting there. I don’t know if we’re on a first-name basis, but maybe by Christmas.â€

Ritika Kapoor, 33, an architect who lives on the Upper East Side, spent some time at the window while on a recent walk to exercise.

“I walk by this store all the time and normally I wouldn’t stop for a holiday window,” she said. “But… I want to see what the bear is doing.”

She has only one complaint about the window: While the cocktail the bear is drinking is, like him, virtual, it makes him thirsty.

“He’s drinking a martini, and it makes me want one, too,” she said. “Ralph Lauren should really sell cocktails here so we can drink with the bear.”