In one window, two figures eagerly tear through wrapping paper, surrounded by a pile of gifts. In another, a snowman and reindeer stand in the middle of a wintery landscape. And in a third, a boy in bright red Christmas attire overturns a bucket of spaghetti on his head.
These and other eye-catching displays dot storefronts throughout downtown Vancouver. They’re all part of a holiday decorating contest organized by Vancouver’s Downtown Association.
The association held its first holiday contest last year, but it scaled things up for 2019 with a much larger roster of participating storefronts and the addition of a “People’s Choice” award joined the “Most Traditional” and “Best Use of Business” categories.
“These are all businesses within the downtown Main Street radius,” said Michael Walker, president of Vancouver’s Downtown Association.
Downtown business owners have been eager to embrace the expanded concept. Salon Moxie co-owner Celinda Rupert said the contest is a great way to remind visitors that there are shopping destinations in the downtown area, and the addition of the People’s Choice category was a good way to spur further community involvement.
“If people haven’t been downtown yet to look at the windows, they should definitely come down,” said Alisa Tetreault, owner of Most Everything Vintage.
The People’s Choice award was decided with an online survey, while the other two winners were chosen by a five-person committee of business owners and stakeholders. The winners were announced Dec. 10.
Most Everything Vintage (815 Washington St.) was awarded Most Traditional, Little Italy’s Trattoria (901 Washington St.) took home Best Use of Business Theme and Salon Moxie (1019 Main St.) was selected as the People’s Choice Award winner.
Walker said the online survey for the People’s Choice Award drew almost 700 responses.
The winning displays
Most Everything Vintage went with a Christmas morning theme, featuring two figures enthusiastically ripping wrapping paper from a present, surrounded by Christmas trees, other presents and a fireplace built into a vintage TV set.
Tetreault said there are other small details that went into constructing the display. The wrapping paper features owls as a nod to the shop’s mascot, and the paper had to be reinforced with wire mesh to make it stay in place as it gets flung into the air.
“We lost a lot of sleep figuring out how to do it,” she said.
Tetreault said she changes the store’s window display every month, including for the holidays – last year’s theme was “winter wonderland” — but this year, she wanted a display that had a shot at winning in any of the three contest categories.
One block up the street at Little Italy’s Trattoria, owners Teresa and Jeff Boyer were inspired by a painting in their restaurant that depicts a boy with a bucket of spaghetti on his head.
“We’ve had this picture on our wall that we’ve had forever,” Teresa Boyer said.
This year was the first time the restaurant has had a holiday window display. Little Italy is getting ready to celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, and Teresa Boyer said the restaurant is looking for ways to become even more connected with the community.
The Boyers were trying to come up with ideas for a window display, she said, and then two of their friends suggested bringing the picture to life and helped set it up. The spaghetti boy has been a huge hit and is certain to return in future years, Teresa Boyer said.
“We loved watching everybody’s faces walking by the window,” she said.
Over at Salon Moxie, Rupert and co-owner Gina McCoy wanted to find a way to top all of their prior holiday displays, and McCoy took the lead in planning out what would become a snow globe theme, complete with giant snowman and reindeer inflatable decorations.
“We never did anything to this scale,” Rupert said.
The team gathered on a Monday morning and put the display together, working to take advantage of the salon’s big bay window. McCoy supplied the inflatables from her own yard display, and one of the salon artists volunteered to paint the windows to look like the side of a snow globe. Lighting and snowflakes completed the look.
The enthusiastic response from shop owners is likely to cement the storefront contest as an annual downtown tradition. This year’s participants certainly view it that way.
“I’m already working on next year’s (display),” Tetreault said. “Next year’s is going to take me a long time to prep for.”
