The residents of Windham Township will finally get a chance to show their Christmas spirit.
Windham Township will host its very own Christmas decorating contest this holiday season beginning on Dec. 4.
“I just hope it brings the community closer together,” Windham Township Zoning Department Board Member Gayle Poots told The Weekly Villager. “It gets people out and about talking with each other and chatting with each other and seeing people they have not seen in a while, or meeting people they had never met before just to bring a closer-knit community.”
Registration for entering the contest began on Nov. 20 and will run through Dec. 3, with voting commencing on Dec. 4 and running through Dec. 30. Applicants can register by visiting the Windham Township website and looking for the link that will take them to a registration form.
Poots, a longtime resident of Windham Township, said she was inspired to push for Windham Township to host its own Christmas decorating contest when she overheard a passing remark by Todd Peetz, the Portage County Regional Planning Commission Director, mentioning that Portage County could set up a website to promote a holiday event.
The link will be on the Windham Township website, but Portage County is providing the registration forms, making it a joint effort.
“I am super grateful,” Poots said. “It is collaboration for the county and the township, and it is a wonderful thing to collaborate with the different organizations.”
Poots set out to make that idea a reality and asked the Windham Township Board of Trustees for their assistance at the monthly meeting on Nov. 2 to promote the event on the Windham Township website. “I was like, ‘oh my gosh this is so much fun’, and I know that Garrettsville does one and I know the surrounding communities do too,” she added. “That is why I thought, oh my gosh, that would be so much fun for us.”
According to Poots, she had passed by several houses in Portage County while driving and had seen some impressive Christmas displays from her neighbors.
“Some of them are so creative and really go all out and even some are more subtle and classic,” Poots noted. “To see the different ones with how people do them differently is so fun and cool. The kids will get such a kick out of it.”
Poots added that voting will be done by Windham Township residents, and they can visit the Windham Township website to vote on which decorations are their favorite.
“I think it is great and it is all subjective,” Poots said. “What you like, I might not like but it is fun. I am hoping everyone will step up and decorate and provide some joy for the residents and even people who are not residents just so they have fun and enjoy the Christmas spirit.”
She added that other decorations that stood out involved nativity scenes and reindeer statues. According to Poots, Portage County does not take Christmas decorations lightly.
“I think they take it pretty seriously just by the number of homes that are decorated,” she said. “You drive and look at people’s Christmas trees and all of the decorations. The towns that decorate and put their wreathes out and put the lighting out, I think Portage County does a really good job of that.”
There is no prize money for first place, only bragging rights, but Poots said there was consideration of having multiple winners who receive the most votes instead of only one victor. Participants are also afforded the opportunity to improve their decorations during the contest because the voting period lasts four weeks, which should help the residents evolve their creativity.
Poots said that she hoped the contest would draw a large enough participation that this contest can become an annual tradition, much like it already is for the neighboring townships in Portage County.
Poots said she will also participate in the event and will need to find a way to become even more creative, having only decorated her house with lights over the past several years.
“I have never gotten to participate in a Christmas decorating contest because Windham Township has never had one,” she said. “I really need to step up my game because I don’t decorate a lot, but it is now on a competition scale but now I have to step my game up.”
