Here are some of the best holiday decorated window displays in NuLu
Every holiday season, many shopkeepers carry on a 150-plus year tradition of decorating storefronts to entice and delight customers.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that as I wandered Louisville’s popular NuLu retail and dining district that my favorite window came from one of our city’s oldest and most beloved businesses. The Monday after Thanksgiving, I took a chilly stroll down East Market Street in search of a little holiday cheer.
A store’s window, in a way, is like a cover of a book. It’s a scene setter for a more detailed experience inside.
As I peered into the window, I saw a handmade, whimsical display that felt so charmingly symbolic of a shop that still hand-dips and hand-wraps its signature treat. Muth’s celebrated its centennial year in 2021, but the recipe for its ever-famous caramel dipped marshmallow, known as the Modjeska, dates back 140 years.
The window featured a hand-drawn Santa’s workshop scene complete with cotton puffs for the clouds, which felt reminiscent of an elementary school craft project. The staff had piled a toy train high with Modjeskas and stuffed a sleigh with chocolate suckers and egg nog taffy. The Muth's team also scattered a few chocolate reindeer with pretzel antlers among the snow.
That glimpse into the Muth’s world struck a note of nostalgia for a much simpler time.
I certainly won’t pretend that our East Market Street is in the same category as shopping districts in New York, where the elaborate displays can feel like they belong in an art gallery or a museum. There’s unparalleled magic to those windows.
Nevertheless, many shops here in Louisville certainly put on a colorful, intimate show of their own.
A few doors down at LouABull, 638 E Market St., the novelty shop had a bright pink Christmas tree in its window decked out with ornaments of Jesus, Kamala Harris, disco balls and fried chicken buckets. On the other side of the door, it’d stacked risqué Santa ornaments on a tray. One depicted Santa leaping through the air in a leotard holding a string of holiday lights, and in another, he was completely naked except for a wrapped gift covering his midsection.
I crossed the street, and paused in front of Red Tree at 701 E. Market St. As I studied the window with its shimmering tinsel and elaborate metallic ornaments, two customers exiting the shop approached me.
“It’s really neat in there,” one told me. “I could have bought everything.”
I knew that feeling well. Red Tree might be my favorite shop in NuLu. The store’s eclectic and marvelously curated decor gives the distinct sense that everything in that shop belongs together. That’s how this window felt, too. One of these elegant spindle-like ornaments would certainly add a bit of glam to my Christmas tree at home, but here they formed a dazzling picture together.
Holiday window displays, like these, date back to New York City in the Gilded Age in the late 19th century, according to an article published in 2019 by Phyllis Magidson for the Museum of the City of New York. The Big Apple had emerged as a fashion capital complete with a mile-long district that tempted consumers with and without the means to enjoy it.
“The variety of retail options it offered was dizzying, ranging from sparkling newly-completed department stores, private dressmakers, milliners and specialty stores offering both domestically produced and imported goods,” Magidson writes.
With a fleet of options to choose from, window displays helped entice customers inside. But they also offered shoppers with fewer resources a chance to embrace the glamour of the holiday season, without the awkwardness of stepping into the shop and leaving without making a purchase.
Window shopping, in a way, can satisfy that curiosity without an uncomfortable exchange.
The display at Paxton’s men’s clothing at 709 E. Market St., for example, made me laugh, even though men’s fashion items weren’t anywhere on my Christmas shopping list.
In one window, the shop had dressed a mannequin in a plaid blazer and slacks, and in the next one wore a tracksuit printed from neck-to-ankle in Santas. Paxton’s decorated a tree in the window, too, complete with chic metallic ornaments in the shape of pizza slices, cement trucks, pickles, tape measures, and packs of bacon.
Woman-Owned Wallet on E. Market Street in Louisville's NuLu neighborhood. December 2, 2025
I smiled, too, as I walked by Women-Owned Wallet, at 803 E. Market St. Even with holiday season, the store didn’t deviate from its signature pink tones. Three cheery looking snowmen wearing pink accessories and blinged out with pink candy embellishments greeted shoppers.
Across the street from there, Lou Lou on Market at 812 E. Market St., took a similar approach. The New Orleans-style restaurant had a giant garland on its door adorned with a purple ribbon. Its windows were trimmed with Mardi Gras beads and gold, purple and green ornaments.
A few businesses, like Pappy and Company, at 843 E Market St., opted for garlands, ribbons and wreathes like what you’d see on a home this time of year. Taste Fine Wines and Bourbons at 634 E. Market St. had a life-size statue of jolly old St. Nicholas at its front door. Six Sisters Boutique, 804 E. Market St., mostly had its holiday products on display in its windows, but it also adorned its doorway with a dynamic garland of ornaments.
I won't go as far as calling anyone a “Grinch” for not decorating their storefront, but I spotted a few less-than merry businesses on my stroll.
And honestly, I can’t really blame them.
Muth’s Candies on E. Market Street in Louisville's NuLu neighborhood. December 2, 2025
Running a business in this economy is hard enough without putting in the extra hours and dollars it takes to add a little magic. As I circled back to my car and passed Muth’s again, I marveled at the fact the shop mustered any sort of window at all — let alone one this sweet.
Last holiday season, I learned in an interview with the family-owned business that its staff hand dips and wraps about 66,000 Modjeskas in the first 24 days of December. That doesn’t even account for the dozens of other products it sells.
Our locally owned businesses work so hard this time of year.
The least we can do as consumers is put down our phones for an afternoon, soak in a little merriment and do our best to support them.
Reach Courier Journal features columnist Maggie Menderski at [email protected].
