Hello all you dashPunk readers! It's that time of year again, when Emz gets to geek out on the Holiday windows, in my favorite city, San Francisco, California. I'll start by bringing you the pictures from Macy's Annual SPCA Holiday Windows. This year, they tripped it out steampunk. You may be thinking, really? Steampunk Christmas pets? Check out their windows and see if you can spot steampunk influence from the way the snowflakes seem like gears falling from the sky, to the way their mannequins are dressed.

This year, Sara Kuwabara volunteered her precious Sunday holiday shopping time to stand out in the cold and tell natives and tourists alike about the SPCA. To find out more about donating to the San Francisco SPCA, go to: www.sfspca.org 

Now on to the winners of this years Emz picks. 

1st pick: Anthropolgie

Suspended from the ceiling and hung on the wall are giant artsy clumps of packing plastic. The effect looks as if you are in the lair of the Abominable Snowman! Their front window display contained string balls commonly made from balloons and glue. Only these guys can take our garbage and make it look cool. 

2nd pick: Swarovski

Although rather tame, I liked one element of the Nordstrom windows. Using the birdcage theme, they placed a mannequin inside wearing a garment looking much like a bird's feathers. Birdcages are one of my favorite motifs right now, so it struck a chord with me.

Not so hot: H&M

The display in itself isn't bad, it's cute even, but the ghastly SALESALESALE banner turned the display into a disaster. The mannequins had strange pink circles on their cheeks, perhaps to make them look like dolls? Could have been a cute idea, but it didn't come off right. Not only was it weird, some of the dots were crooked on the mannequin faces. Please, next year guys, try to be worth my time.

Japantown Christmas Explosion

I hope you all take little pieces of this article and incorporate the artistic spirit into your own works. And don't forget to show us here at dashPunk your pics when you're finished!

Happy Holidays!