Nancy’s Merrill’s A Photo a Week Challenge has a very creative and season-related theme this week: Lit from Within.

Most holiday lights are “lit from within” the tiny bulbs, such as these at Macy’s (formerly Marshall Field’s) in Chicago…

but here are some other Macy’s holiday lighting from within. Yesterday my friend Marcia and I had a special luncheon at the famous Walnut Room at Macy’s – this is a long tradition going back at least to my childhood, when my mother used to bring us to eat at the Walnut Room at Christmas time so we could marvel at the huge Christmas tree. This tree has gotten more “high tech” spectacular over the years.

A huge transparent ornament had a chandelier inside.

The glow of a lightbulb through a lampshade illuminated the piano where my grand-nephew Nicholas played carols while the rest of us sang, a few Christmases ago.

In 2015, we spent Christmas at Dale’s nephew’s house in El Cerrito, California. They had decorated the front of their house with bright “presents” illuminated from within.

Last year, I took this photo from the Des Plaines Metra station, waiting for a train to arrive. Besides the holiday lights, the Des Plaines library in the background was open, with the lights on in all the windows.

At the Art Institute a few years ago, there was a special exhibit exploring Van Gogh’s famous “Bedroom” painting – actually, he painted three of them, each a little different. This display was an idea of what the bedroom he painted would have looked like, which patrons could peer at from outside a window.