We ranked the best holiday store windows on Fifth Avenue. See the winners.

• Fifth Avenue is known for its elaborate store windows during the holiday season.
• The displays are unveiled right before Thanksgiving but the preparations can begin as early as February. 
• We ranked the best windows based on how creative, festive, and elaborate they were.

If there's anything that could make New York City's Fifth Avenue busier than its usual crowd of tourists, it's the extravagant window displays that emerge for the holidays.

Every year, stores begin to deck out their windows for the holiday shopping season. Typically, the displays are unveiled in the days leading up to Thanksgiving, but the preparations can begin as early as February, according to a New York Times article.

Retailers began investing in holiday window displays in the late 19th century to attract shoppers during the year's busiest shopping season. Macy's is credited as the first department store to decorate its windows — at its previous 14th Street outpost between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.

Eventually, many stores decked out their windows for the holidays with the goal to outdo one another. Before American author L. Frank Baum wrote "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," he published a trade magazine called "The Show Window" to showcase the best displays in New York and Chicago. In an issue from 1897, an article highlights the job of a window gazer — someone who is paid to stop in front of a store's windows and draw a crowd of spectators.

During the Great Depression, Lord & Taylor used animatronics to turn its window displays into a free show for New Yorkers who couldn't afford the theater, according to tour guide Lucie Levine. As windows became more complex, retailers hired experts, and even artists like Salvador Dalí and Andy Warhol tried their hands at window dressing.

Business Insider took a stroll along Fifth Avenue to see the holiday windows and ranked each store based on how creative, festive, and elaborate they were.

12. Coach

The window displays at Coach featured wrapped gifts and red flooring around the mannequins. While it was certainly festive, it lacked creativity — as if the merchandising crew added holiday lights, pine garlands, and wrapping paper as an afterthought rather than developing an original concept for the visuals. Rotating purses that hang from pulleys added some dimension to the otherwise generic decor, though they are permanent fixtures of the store's windows.

11. Dolce & Gabbana

While Dolce and Gabbana's windows were quite bedazzled, they lacked vision and originality. The displays featured geometric silver panels behind blindingly shiny clothing. In fact, everything was so shiny that I wasn't quite sure where to look, and the sparkly fashions — which would normally stand out — faded together with the panels.

10. Gucci

If Dolce & Gabbana showed us how not to do all-over silver, Gucci showed us how it's done better. The store's windows displayed giant packages in a variety of sizes, adorned in shiny silver, matte silver, and white. Each package featured the signature Gucci horsebit, while clothing and accessories were sprinkled in pockets between them.

9. Van Cleef & Arpels

It's difficult to make an extravagant window display that won't outshine delicate jewelry. These displays oriented the pieces in delightful miniature winter wonderlands, yet the scenery was minimal enough to keep the jewels the focus. Tiny balls seemed to represent people skiing down ridges and playing in the snow.

8. Mango

Mango's windows looked a bit like a modern art gallery exhibit, with red chrome sculptures in the shape of trees and ribbons. This unexpected approach was an exciting departure from more traditional windows. Yet, the simple black fashions chosen for the mannequins were lackluster in comparison.

7. Cartier

Window displays at Cartier featured its famous red airship, along with paper-thin gold sculptures of the architectural features of its store, like windows and a staircase. But the most dazzling parts of its decor were the lit-up clouds along the building and a giant red Cartier airship hovering among them.

6. Louis Vuitton

At Louis Vuitton, windows were kept simple but still had elements that were playful and festive. Lights meant to represent stars twinkled through deep blue, snowy backdrops and peculiar characters with flower faces carried towers of asymmetrically stacked gifts that doubled as shelves for handbags. Bonus points for a giant, branded holiday decal that stretched across one side of the building.

5. Dior

To coincide with its Butterfly Around The World motif by Pietro Ruffo, Dior chose the butterfly as the centerpiece for its windows, which was pleasantly unexpected among the trees, presents, and ribbons that punctuated Fifth Avenue. A giant butterfly hung above the entrance, surrounded by many smaller butterflies, and beneath in French read "the flight of butterflies reveals our desires to the stars."

4. Tiffany & Co.

While a minimal approach to holiday windows wouldn't normally be captivating, Tiffany blue is perhaps the only color as festive as a holiday red. The company seemed to acknowledge this when it chose the turquoise shade as the backdrop for all of its windows. One to three pieces of jewelry are the focal points, encapsulated by snowflake designs that seem to vibrate in an optical illusion as viewers shift positions.

3. Burberry

Burberry constructed a striking model of an apartment that reached several feet tall. Instead of brick, the entire structure was covered in red plaid. Boots stood on the doorstep while handbags, scarves, and matching stockings hung from the edge of the gate.

2. Bergdorf Goodman

Bergdorf's intricate windows never disappoint. This year's theme was "Isn't It Brilliant" and featured shiny animals, objects, and fashion collaged together. It reminded me of the wonder of staring at an "I Spy" book and noticing a new object with every gaze.

1. Saks Fifth Avenue

It's hard to beat Saks Fifth Avenue's holiday displays, as they can be among the most extravagant of them all. A giant installation bedazzles the front of the 10-story building, which turns into a 300,000 LED light show at night accompanied by music. But light show aside, the most impressive elements this year were the intricate sets behind the windows telling the story of designer Christian Dior as he journeys from Paris to New York City. Saks partnered with the fashion house to create the installations.

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