Say goodbye to Santa and his elves and hello to whimsical animals. For the first time in nearly a decade, Hudson’s Bay has redesigned its holiday windows on Queen St. W.

Replacing traditional scenes of Santa’s workshop is an enchanted forest of 29 animatronic animals.

“Retail is about change and leading the pack and having something different to present to our customers,” said Denis Frenette, senior vice-president, merchandise presentation at Hudson’s Bay. “What’s not so different is we’re keeping what we’re known for — the animation, the whimsical little details,” he said. “There’s a lot that goes behind this that the customers don’t see.”

The Star crawled behind-the-scenes to find out how these magical windows were brought to life.

For three weeks, workers crouched through eight different passageways to screw in lighting fixtures and hammer in supports for the 29 animatronic animals that make up the woodland creatures featured in the five windows that Hudson’s Bay painstakingly decorates each year to the delight of seasonal shoppers.

The time was right to change to a more secular theme.

“At Hudson’s Bay we celebrate the holidays, and we keep in mind that they are different for everyone,” said HBC president Liz Rodbell. “We were excited this year to capture the Christmas spirit in a new and unexpected way with our window design.”

Instead of scenes of Christmas — Santa checking his list, elves building toys, reindeer trotting, and carolers singing — the windows are a high-tech animal wonderland: Bunnies play ice hockey below swinging squirrels wielding snowballs; Tiny mice make snow angels and snowboard around a bear under the Aurora Borealis; A mother owl presents a new baby to friends and family; And a gaggle of geese snowshoe through the forest with wreaths around their long necks.

Designed and created in over 35,000 hours since March by New York-based Spaeth Design, the creators of displays for Macy’s and Bloomingdales, the new windows are a move toward modern esthetics after nine years of old-fashioned magic. Though it’s all animals now, the one constant is the animatronics: characters brought to life by electric motors, swinging back and forth and spinning in circles.

The revamp is on-trend, said David McDermid, co-ordinator of visual merchandising arts at Seneca College. “Cute woodland animals — who doesn’t like that? It’s inoffensive. Everybody wants to do forests, snow animals, anything that’s not a traditional look,” he said, noting that the seeming removal of Christmas is also “the politically correct way to go.”

Though the word “Christmas” was emblazoned on posters hiding the displays last month, there’s little hint of the holiday in the new windows. No more Santa Claus, just animals frolicking in the snow.

“There’s this general trend in western countries away from religion,” said David Soberman, a professor with the Rotman School of Management, noting today’s Toronto is one of many religions. “While Santa isn’t religious, it’s clearly a symbol of Christmas — he’s a representation of Saint Nicholas.”

Toronto’s growing department store landscape may also have been cause for change. The new displays come at a time when Hudson’s Bay is “under fire” from new competition, said Soberman. “You have attacks from the bottom by places like Walmart and Canadian Tire. And you have attacks from the top by things like Nordstrom which have just come into Canada.”

The windows appear to be a reinvention aimed at young middle class families who don’t shop at high-end department stores, he said. But ultimately, the purpose of an eye-catching window display is simple: “When you have store traffic it’s important to capture people’s attention,” said Soberman. He likes the redesign, but that doesn’t really matter — “People are going to go into stores at Christmas time.”