{"id":414781,"date":"2025-11-30T09:34:59","date_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:34:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/414781\/"},"modified":"2025-11-30T09:34:59","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T09:34:59","slug":"the-wanamaker-light-show-returns-with-gravitas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/414781\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wanamaker Light Show returns with gravitas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Wanamaker Light Show<\/a> returned with gusto this weekend after Philadelphians held their breath over the last year about the fate of the deeply cherished tradition. <\/p>\n

For nearly 70 years, the voice of John Facenda, then Julie Andrews, and a charmingly low-tech cast of twinkling characters have ushered in the holiday merriment for generations of Philadelphians. This year\u2019s spectacle took on renewed significance as the future of the Light Show and the adjoining Dickens Village dimmed. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is deeply personal to us as Philadelphians, and we like to save stuff. We\u2019re nostalgic to a fault,\u201d said Kathryn Ott Lovell<\/a>, leader of the Save the Light Show<\/a> effort, a grassroots campaign that secured the show\u2019s encore despite the sale of its longtime host, the Macy\u2019s store in Center City<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The successful fundraising effort included more than 700 individual donors and gifts<\/a> from philanthropic foundations.<\/p>\n

\u201cChristmas isn\u2019t Christmas without the Wanamaker Light Show,\u201d said Paulette Steffa, who was among the first people who lined up at the door for the Saturday matinee, braving temperatures in the low 40s and gusty winds. By noon, the line outside the Wanamaker Building snaked from Market to Drury Streets; just 15 minutes later, about 1,100 people flooded the famed foyer. More than 7,000 attended the show\u2019s opening day on Friday. <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: Welcome back, Frosty! The Wanamaker Light Show will return this year.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Steffa, 72, has been a Light Show regular since its debut in 1956, when she was 3 years old. On Saturday, she was decked out in a red sweater matching the show\u2019s silhouettes and a plastic John Wanamaker<\/a> shopping bag from the Bicentennial. <\/p>\n

At the stroke of 12:30 p.m., kids and kids-at-heart alike flocked around the Wanamaker Eagle and tilted their chins upward to the magic Christmas tree. They oohed and aahed at the twinkling candy canes, glitzy Sugar Plum Fairies, and jolly snowmen. <\/p>\n

Debbie Miller, 68, came as a child with her parents, then with her husband, then with their children \u2014 and maybe, someday, she hopes, their grandchildren. The show\u2019s warmth melts away troubles, she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s that feeling of there\u2019s still some good in this world, there\u2019s still some positive energy in this world,\u201d Miller, of Chester County<\/a>, said. \u201cWe all have our daily struggles, but when you come here, it\u2019s a little bit of an escape from that. It just makes you good.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u00bb READ MORE: The Wanamaker Light Show and Dickens Village are safe this year. The future remains uncertain.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

While many, like Steffa and the Millers, are regular visitors, Saturday was a long-awaited homecoming for Evelyn Poole: This was the 73-year-old\u2019s first time seeing the show since she worked in the Wanamakers lingerie department and Santa\u2019s Workshop as a teenager. She brought along her 7-year-old grandson for the occasion. <\/p>\n

What will happen to the beloved attraction in the coming years remains uncertain: There is more money to be raised, ownership to be settled, and a long-term preservation plan to be devised. <\/p>\n

But for at least one more season, Philadelphians can rejoice in the glow of the magic Christmas tree. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Wanamaker Light Show returned with gusto this weekend after Philadelphians held their breath over the last year…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":414782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,194650],"class_list":{"0":"post-414781","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-pa","10":"tag-pennsylvania","11":"tag-philadelphia","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa","18":"tag-wanamaker-light-show-returns-with-gusto-despite-uncertain-future"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115637972025179947","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}