Every year, Saks Fifth Avenue hosts a light show at its flagship store in Manhattan for the holiday season, and it has evolved into a staple tradition in New York City. Unfortunately for both tourists and locals alike, Saks announced the cancellation of this year’s show on November 12, citing financial constraints as the reason for the iconic celebration’s cancellation.

According to The New York Post, the department store chain announced that the light show would be canceled because “it has been a challenging year for luxury.” The chain has also stated that it wanted to change its approach to the famous display for the past few years. According to Forbes, the decision to cancel the light show to save money could be a direct result of HBC’s poor financial decisions, which was made in light of the company’s acquisition of the Neiman Marcus Group earlier this year. 

However, according to CBS, many New Yorkers have expressed their shock and dismay at the show’s cancellation, mainly because it has become an icon of Christmastime in the city in the past two decades. 

For many, the Saks light show is one of the things that makes Christmas in the city so special. The other factor contributing to many people’s confusion is that 2024 is Sak’s 100th anniversary, which many people assumed would be commemorated with a more extravagant light show.

According to Forbes, Saks made a poor decision, as 2024 also falls in line with the 200th anniversary of Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue. Due to that, many other high-end stores in Saks’ vicinity are said to be planning to have extra bougie displays, with brands such as Canada Goose, Citizen, Swarovski, and Tiffany seeking to outdo each other. 

To quell the disappointment of the light show’s cancellation, according to CBS reports that Saks will be celebrating its centennial and Fifth Avenue’s 200th birthday by illuminating the facade of its flagship store in Manhattan. The windows of the store will display top-end luxury items in order to highlight the store’s history of bliss and splendor. The other intention of this year’s display is to celebrate the architecture of the flagship location. 

According to The New York Times, the light show has been hosted annually since 2004, with the lights running from late November to early January. The early iterations of the show were basic displays of snowflakes, but it eventually evolved into a majestic castle, which is now the symbol of the show.

Even though visitors and residents might be disappointed at the lack of a Saks light show this year, there is still plenty to look at in the area, with countless stores having displays of their own. The chain’s flagship is also just a block away from the Rockefeller Center tree, which is another major holiday staple of New York City.