BY JULIE SEYLER

This past Saturday morning, I walked up Fifth Avenue in Manhattan to see how it was decorated. This was my first major walk outside, without a cane, and with my camera, since my hip surgery on November 6.  My camera is not very heavy, but neither is it small, so I was anxious at the thought of keeping my balance amongst the throngs that stroll down the avenue.  If Midtown Manhattan is always jammed, the crowds are squared this time of year.

I got to Rockefeller Center about 9:30, and checked out the tree. It was lovely and huge but didn’t bedazzle me. I need to get over there at night when the lights are on. Statues of Little Drummer Boys and trumpet players surround the skating rink, and already the line to get in there stretched from the ticket window to Fifth Avenue.

I continued up Fifth, and was taken by the icicle drips on the Fendi windows, the rare jewels at Harry Winston, and the moving sets of waves and flowers that hid and displayed the jewels at Van Cleef & Arpels.

But the most fun and festive windows are always at Bergdorf Goodman. This year they celebrated the Follies.  And as many photos as I took, it was difficult to nail down in a digital image their exquisite frivolity. Here is one example.

Click here, though, and you’ll get a better sense of the details.

I crossed the street and stopped at Tiffany & Co.

And then Cartier. Their windows were filled with the simple red boxes that denote a Cartier gift. But like magic, they opened and, voila!,

the jewels were displayed. Sometimes all the boxes would open and close together. It was fun.

I walked into St. Patrick’s Cathedral and lit a candle for the children and families in Connecticut, and when I came out, the masses on Fifth left no room for movement of any kind. I scurried past the windows of Saks, which celebrated the innocence, wonders and discoveries of youth, and hightailed it back downtown.