One reason why each designer gets such leeway is because each store caters to a different clientele.

"A mall customer will be a lot different from a Harvard Square customer," Emerson says.

"Our customer is really different than at other Crate and Barrels....It's a very educated customer, a very worldly customer, who is willing to invest in merchandise that is really special," she says.

A children's easel, decorated with a picture of a snowman, is thus featured in one of the windows; in another, stacks of cobalt blue glassware-big sellers in the Square-are prominent.

"The windows relate to each other color-wise and feeling-wise," Emerson says, noting the reds, greens and gold echoed throughout the displays, but adds that each window has unique features.

One caveat for the Square decorations, she says, is to keep it simple. "Anything that's kitschy, we don't sell a lot of," she says.

About Town

The holidays pose a unique problem for window decorators: they have to both sell specific gifts and draw in customers with unique displays.

At Clothworks, a clothing store, Debbie A. Dougan says the foot traffic during the holidays greatly increases the number of customers, due in no small part to the window display.

"It's amazing to me how much the window works," she says.

"Our window was about letting people know we have a lot of good gift ideas," Dougan says, "and people come in all the time wanting to know what is in the window."

At Dickson Bros. Hardware, the same phenomenon occurs.

In place of ornaments, the windows have dangling pieces of mirror, metallic hangers and different types of chain.

"With the chains, people started coming in asking 'Oh, do you carry chain?' rather than asking why chain is hanging with glassware," laughs Jeff S. Benskin, who designed the windows.

A Creative Outlet