Behind the window displays in Harvard Square is a group of store employees, from a trained window designer to a parttime photographer, who use the holidays-and corresponding window displays-to show off their talents.

Some use more structure, some use more creativity, but all try to draw in customers with their unique art.

"[Window decoration] has a great effect. It's really the only way of communicating to people walking down the street. It's extremely important," says Kristin R. Emerson, store designer for the Crate and Barrel located in Harvard Square.

The Planning Process

At Crate and Barrel, the holiday windows are the result of five months of planning.

Staffers meet at the end of August to plan the holiday decorations; by October, the design is concrete.

Each of the approximately 70 nationwide stores counts a designer among its employees.

Emerson went through a six-month design training program before achieving designer status.

A holder of a painting and drawing degree from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, she says she finds window design an appropriate release for her creativity.

"[Crate and Barrel] tries to instill in you a sense of being a shopkeeper," says Emerson, scissors and papers sticking out of her overall pockets.

Surrounded by half-filled boxes, plastic wrap and stacks of new merchandise, Emerson certainly looks the part of a shopkeeper.

"[Crate and Barrel] is willing to invest time and energy into the store designers," she says.

For the Crate and Barrel-style holiday, certain elements are constant nationwide-the shelves and blocks are the same store-to-store, for example-but within certain constraints, designers can go wild.

"The general feel of the decorations will have direction, but you take it from there," Emerson says.

The Customer Contingent