What makes for the perfect Christmas window in a shop? In my mind, it's a creative mix and riff of tradition and non-traditional holiday icons, images, colors and shapes.  Standard and cliché in my mind is red and green, Santa and reindeer, stockings and a fire-place.  Modern and non-traditional are mixing colors and green, sliver and blue or red, gold and brown--maybe there's a tree but it's not a fat over grown pine.

It's a sense that the Christmas scene is fresh and clean--not necessarily sparse but it has a coherence and a simplicity while still being elegant and refined. It evokes a feeling of comfort and home, the spirit of the holiday but it's sexier and more innovative than your Christmas decorations at home. It's what you wish you could do if you weren't obligated to put out all of the family Christmas treasures that have been accumulated over the years.

I realize this is a lot to ask for a single Christmas window or a shop's Christmas display but in my mind this is what makes for curb-side appeal. So when I was on Vitosha last weekend shopping, snow falling I couldn't help but think about the impending holiday.  Most of the shops had some nod towards the holiday in their windows but none in my mind seemed to really get it.  (And I get it, I probably have unreasonably high standards.)

This window however caught my attention:<!--more-->

[caption id="attachment_1601" align="alignleft" width="500" caption="A Christmas Shop Window? "]<a href="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/dsc01236.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-1601" title="Store window " src="http://www.karolinkabulgaria.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/dsc01236.jpg" alt="" width="500" height="666" /></a>[/caption]

The text is bold: The loveliest Christmas window? You're looking at it.

In order to capture the text on the window I ended up having to sacrifice the rest of the display but don't worry I'll tell you what I saw. Black clothing--not a trace of fake snow or icicles, no lights strung in the window, hardly a nod toward any color let alone red or green, no santa, no tree, no wrapped presents on the floor.  Other than the sign on the window, in the shape of a wreath, I saw nothing that reminded me of the holiday.

So what? Now I find myself wondering is this for real? What are they up to? Is this a wonderfully wry post-modern, post-consumerism joke? Did they just forget to put out the Christmas goods? Is the window decorated now? Is it possible that the whole store only sells things in some shade of black or gray so they have nothing to put in the window that evokes the season?

In the end, I don't know what they're up to and this question rings in my ears: Why? Why not put out Christmas?