Christmas 1919–1931: Jacopozzi and the department store illuminations
Thirteen Christmases in a row, Fernand Jacopozzi reigned over the illuminations of the Parisian department stores. From the Magasins du Louvre to the Bon Marché, he invented the animated shop window as we still know it.
December 1919. The war has been over for a year. Parisians need celebration. The Grands Magasins du Louvre, on the Place du Palais-Royal, commission Fernand Jacopozzi to create the first civil illuminations of the post-war era.
The Magasins du Louvre façade, a laboratory of light
The result is stunning. Animated sets ten metres high take over the facades. The designs are so arresting that the Magasins du Louvre sell them individually once the Christmas season ends — the first known instance of luminous merchandising.
For thirteen consecutive winters, until his death in 1932, the Magasins du Louvre would remain Jacopozzi’s most loyal client. Its signature piece: an Alsatian stork made of 4,600 bulbs spreading its wings above a miniature village, distributing toys, then drifting away in artificial snow that stops on command.
The competitors strike back
The success triggers a war of light between the department stores:
At the BHV — a clown juggles luminous balls.
At La Samaritaine — Father Christmas descends a chimney of light.
The invention of the modern Christmas
Without realising it, Fernand Jacopozzi invented what would become a worldwide ritual: the animated, luminous, narrative Christmas window. Every year, tens of thousands of Parisians — including many children from the poorest quarters — made the journey to see the new creations.
“He created these illuminations so that even poor children would have the right to a magical spectacle.” — Donatella Jacopozzi