The Wanamaker Light Show, installed and ready, will open Nov. 28
Both beloved Philadelphia holiday attractions were installed last week after a fundraising effort successfully ensured the endangered shows would continue this winter.
The Wanamaker Light Show and Dickens Village are officially saved — and will reopen to the public on Friday, Nov. 28, officials said this week.
Both beloved Philadelphia holiday attractions were installed in the historic Wanamaker Building near City Hall last week after a fundraising effort successfully ensured the endangered shows would continue at least one more year. The fund drive to keep the show alive had been announced by the Philadelphia Visitor Center, in partnership with Wanamaker Building owner TF Cornerstone, shortly after Macy’s had been sold in March.
In September, organizers said that with over 700 individual donors and gifts from philanthropic foundations, they had raised enough of their $350,000 goal to bring back both attractions this winter — and to begin planning for their future care. The show remains free for the public.
On Monday, at a news conference planned for the Wanamaker Grand Court, the show’s new stewards will announce a final 2025 Light Show and Dickens Village schedule, with details on ticketing, new partnerships and sponsors, and ongoing fundraising efforts to keep the attractions long-term.
While news that the show would endure for at least one more holiday season was not a surprise, the reinstallation of the light show, a cherished Philly holiday staple since 1956, marked a milestone.
Last week, a team of planners from Macy’s Parade Studio — the New Jersey design facility that ran the light show, and where all the floats, balloons, and customers for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York are built and stored — came to Philly. They instructed new workers on how to install the show’s 154-branch towering tree, its 100,000 individual bulbs, and its paneled Santa, Sugarplum Fairies, and snowflakes. The show, which operates on suspended trusses and a digitized lighting and sound program, is directed from a tiny circuit room above the Grand Court known as “Frosty Central.”
Volunteers will finish installing the 6,000 square feet of cobbled streets and animatronic figures of Dickens Village next week, planners said.
Using money from a charitable fund, Philly’s electrical workers union, IBEW Local 98, donated a three-person labor crew to install the reams of lighting. The Macy’s team, which also donated its time, instructed the crew from M. Gitlin Co. of Glen Mills on the nuances of installing a historic light show in a shuttered department store.
“They came down and taught our guys how to do it — and hopefully we’re going to do it for many many years to come,” said Bob Gormley, business agent for IBEW Local 98. “It’s a tradition that you got to keep it going. It’s a major positive thing for our kids.”