…and retailers are getting their stores ready. As the windows in London’s West End light up, John Ryan picks out the crackers and the turkeys

For the majority of retailers in the West End, the next six weeks are looking increasingly like the only period of the year when items will be sold at full price. And even this is under threat as, year after year, shoppers wait until the last moment to see whether bargains hit the high street ahead of December 25.

Windows are a central part of retailers’ festive armoury – a shout at passing shoppers, bidding them to come in and share the most magical time of the year. When used effectively, they are margin preservers that stimulate trade ahead of the dog days of January and February.

The problem is, there seems to be a wide degree of variance about what constitutes a compelling display and one of the capital’s newest arrivals, Primark, has distinctly failed to sparkle. If you’ve got money to spare, a trip to Heals on Tottenham Court Road might prove worthwhile. For a trifling£400, a white deer (left) can be yours: one man bought four, according to Heals chief executive Andrea Warden.

Debenhams

Christmas is in full swing at Debenhams’ Oxford Street flagship store, with a complete set of seasonal windows. However, if you approach the store at night, long before the displays hove into view, the building stands out, owing to the strings of white lights covering the exterior. This is probably the only time of year when one of Oxford Street’s least glamorous buildings manages a certain appeal with a little bit of Fifth Avenue glitz.

That said, the windows are distinctly old-fashioned, with displays that are best described as maximalist – almost nothing has been left out. There is also a sense of Christmas cracker about the colour scheme, with the choice of red and gold as a backdrop. The overarching theme is a party – no surprise, perhaps – but this is a suburban-looking celebration, where red candles on heavily laden tables vie for attention with mannequins decked out in shiny tuxedos or long, silk shift dresses.

A redeeming feature was the animatronic window, where cuddly toys do cute stuff. This was attracting more than its fair share of amateur photographers and is also reason to remark that Debenhams is still at the heart of Middle England’s aspirations. From this perspective, this window is bang on its target market.

Gap

As last week’s issue of Retail Week reported, Gap has created a window scheme where white light and abstract Christmas trees provide the setting for neutral-coloured merchandise. But this most typically American of retailers has gone a step further, taking the window theme upwards to cover the entire store.

The outcome is as dramatic as it is simple and the blacked-out backing with the lit-up tree shapes combines to create one of the most arresting sights along Oxford Street. Although this will not have been cheap to create, it will not be a patch on the cost of some of the all-singing, all-dancing animatronic offerings that line this shopping thoroughfare and can also be rolled out across the chain.

Laura Ashley

The Laura Ashley flagship, opposite Selfridges, has a window display with a figure that looks like it has been taken from the 1970s cult film Cabaret. With a bobbed haircut and red bowler hat, the Sally Bowles-style mannequin is dressed in a halter-neck top, with long black gloves that successfully tread the fine line between celebration and sleaze. The effect is completed by the high-backed silver chair – presumably not part of Laura Ashley’s home furnishings offer.

Unusually, this window brings the inside outside and the festive garland that stretches across the upper quarter of the display is actually on the exterior. Its deep scarlet colour adds to the feeling of decadence that Laura Ashley seems to want to foster. Shoppers were stopping to look and admire.

Primark

The fashionistas’ favourite cut-price fashion store seems to have missed something with its first set of Christmas windows. Just because a store sells cheap stock does not mean the windows are required to mirror this commercial attitude.

The lingerie-based window takes as its theme a bunch of strippers about to go on stage and, in doing so, strays over the line, separating the burlesque from the merely slapper-esque. The strapline reads: “A whole lot of Christmas”. While this may be the case in-store, the less-is-more approach to this window seems to sum up Primark’s take on the season of pushing and shoving to get a bargain.

There is an additional architectural problem. The stone window ledge at the foot of each of this listed building’s displays provides an impromptu seating area for people waiting for buses. This means that, on a busy evening, it is hard to get an uncluttered view of what’s on show. Primark’s Oxford Street Christmas windows aim low – and miss.

Harrods

Many of this year’s window schemes are marked by their use of silver and white, intended perhaps to create an ice-queen ambiance around which a fairytale setting can be spun. Harrods’ Christmas window displays are always glamorous and, although other colours are used, white and silver, combined with blue light, predominate.

The most impressive point is that there is not a poor display along the entire length of this outsize emporium and, in every window, there is a real sense of a story being told. In fairness, Harrods sets aside a disproportionately large amount of money every year to supply Londoners and tourists with what they expect but, even allowing for this, nothing disappoints in this part of Knightsbridge.

House of Fraser

The problem confronting any retailer that is part of a substantial chain, is how to create the requisite degree of show-stopping pizzazz on Oxford Street and, at the same time, have a scheme that can be set up elsewhere.

House of Fraser seems to have done this with a minimalist approach, where the emphasis is on the garments, rather than the box that contains them. This does run the risk of windows with large amounts of white space, but HoF has overcome this with Sputnik-like lights suspended within the space.

The mannequins are also noteworthy, with dramatic poses and opulent wigs that succeed in summoning up a vision of sirens with drop-dead stares. A fine Christmas spread that veers more towards the pagan than the traditional.