Celebrating 100 Years of the Walnut Room and the Great Tree, Chicago 2007!

This video was filmed on December 6, 2007, for our annual Christmas trip downtown for my birthday. My Grandma started this family tradition with me when I was a little girl and we have continued it to this day. This year the Walnut Room and the Great Tree are celebrating 100 years. The tree is 45 feet tall and features silver, gold, green, blue, pink, and red kugels, 15,000 lights and a snowflake tree topper designed by Martha Stewart, and a snow dusted village at the base. Kugels, German for "balls," were first used as tree decorations in the mid -1800s.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• the
• great
• tree
• marshall
• field's
• macy's
• state
• street
• walnut
• room

[JakeZelmore]

Macy's ruins everything. Period. Grew up with Kaufmann's, shopped there every year for school clothes macy's took over and its not the same. Its a ghost town in the former Kaufmann's stores...yeah they're busy but not like they used to be. Bring back field's and kaufmann's!

[xleecrowx]

@JakeZelmore I agree, Macy's ruins everything it touches and I hear this from a lot of people. I really miss Marshall Field's.

[MichealJacksonISODST]

MY MOM USE TO TAKE US TO FIELDS EVERY CHRISTMAS TO EAT UNDER THE TREE IN THE WALNUT ROOM. I HAVE GREAT MEMORIES OF IT. MY STEPMOM VIVIAN USE TO WORK AT FIELDS TOO WE ALWAYS WENT DOWNTOWN AND STOPPED AT FIELD I ALWAYS BOUGHT HER CHRISTMAS GIFT FROM THERE TOO. WHAT GREAT MEMORIES THEY WILL LIVE FOREVER IN MY HEART!! I WAS JUST DOWNTOWN IN JULY AND WENT INTO MACY'S NOT THE SAME AS FIELDS. I HAVE MAKE UP BAG WITH MARSHALL FIELDS WRITTEN ON IT. I WILL SAVE FOREVER....

[xleecrowx]

@MichealJacksonISODST Thanks for sharing your memories!

[basenjidiva]

Marshall Field's was the most service-oriented store in Chicago. It was wholly unique, not generic, and their staff and I were on a first-name basis. They knew my size and taste, alerted me when new merchandise arrived which they felt I would find desirable; ninety-nine percent of the time they were RIGHT! This has been a terrible loss to Chicago, and to ALL Field's shoppers. I still shopped at Field's both by catalogue and by phone, although I live elsewhere. PLEASE BRING FIELD'S BACK!

[xleecrowx]

@basenjidiva Yes, Field's it truly missed by us all in Chicago. And all you say about Field's is true. I only go to the Walnut Room once a year for my birthday...I have many memories that surround me there...I can feel my Grandma with me even through she has passed. She started the tradition of having lunch around the Great Tree for my birthday. She loved Field's and I'm so glad she didn't live to see what happened to her beloved store...it would have killed her.

[basenjidiva]

@xleecrowx Breaks my heart! Field's was our family tradition, too; I'm glad my Mother didin't live to see this travesty perpetrated upon former Field's shoppers. Better to try to teach a cat to bark, than to try to teach Macy's to be Fields!  Now that I no longer can mail-order from Field's, I won't shop at Macy's locally! Field's was NOT generic; it was the essence of Chicago. Such wonderful memories...

[xleecrowx]

@3dogsdesert I agree with you.

[3dogsdesert]

I can't walk into a Macy's they don't belong in Chicago...Field's does, period.

[xleecrowx]

It has been a tradition in our family to visit the Walnut room and have lunch by the great tree for my birthday since I was a little girl. It's the highlight of our holiday season! There is a new theme for the tree each year and we can't wait to find out what it is!