Man recreates iconic Dayton’s holiday window displays at his home

By Adam Del Rosso

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — For decades, families flocked to the eighth-floor auditorium of the downtown Minneapolis Dayton’s for its famous holiday displays.

Sadly, that tradition ended nearly a decade ago when the department store closed. But now, some of the Dayton’s elves have a new home.

“Memories of going to the Dayton display when I was a kid were important to me,” said John Pihaly. “And what it means to the community, so many people have great memories from their time going to the Dayton’s display, either with their parents or even grandparents.”

The holiday show started in 1963 and was a staple until it closed in 2016. Many of the elves are now in disrepair, scattered all across the state.

“So many of the pieces we had were broken up; missing fingers and hands, and we just had to repair all those,” said Pihaly, who has given the elves a new home. “We got them in 2020. We brought home about 24 elves in all. About nine of them we got restored in the first year and had them on display for a couple of years.”

The rest took countless hours of work to restore. With no background, Pihaly had to learn on the go, with a little help along the way.

“I had one of the ladies from Dayton’s come out and spend hours with me. She worked on the show for, I don’t know, 20, 30 years. And she came over here and went through each one and told me what shows they were in, and really encouraged me to kind of push it to the next limit,” said Pihaly.

Now, they’re ready to perform again. Not at Dayton’s, but at Pihaly’s St. Paul home. Six windows were recreated — from Frosty’s Toy Factory to Santa Claus’s Candy Company.

“It’s a great display for the young, but it’s also great for the young at heart. We really encourage everybody to stop by that has any memories of the display, especially the seniors out there, they seem to really enjoy coming by and seeing the display,” said Pihaly.

If you want to check out the display, it runs nightly through Christmas from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m. at 1887 Saunders Ave. in St. Paul.

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