How to be a Contender

Many people ask how our winners are chosen. Our panel of judges varies each year and has different ideas for what winning decorations should look like. However, some tendencies seem consistent among judges from year-to-year. If you are looking for advice, here are our tips:

1. Contact us with your name and address. You do not need to sign up to win, but we cannot guarantee you will be on our route unless we know where you live. Please feel free to nominate a neighbor!

2. Judges seem to prefer the look of "warm" lights versus the cool, bright look of some LED's. No one is staunchly anti-LED, but a majority of winning decorations have been incandescent or warm LED. Most judges do agree the two types should rarely be mixed. 

3. Judges seem to enjoy both all-white and multi-colored displays. One single color is rarely chosen as a winner, but mixing white in with a single color can be beautiful.

4. Judges prefer a display which has an overall design with a sense of tidiness and/or uniformity. Displays with lots of varieties of lights and decorations randomly scattered about are not often selected.

5. Sometimes less is more. A yard chuck-full of organized decorations is all sorts of fun, and often a contender. But occasionally a small display that is unique and well-presented takes a prize.

These are just a few observations from past contests. The most important thing to remember is to create a design that you enjoy coming home to each night! We highly recommend ignoring our tips in favor of your personal preferences.