Holiday Window Display Competition opens voting

Starting Nov. 21 and running through Dec. 11, visitors to downtown Ithaca have the chance to view — and review — window displays put together by business owners to celebrate the holiday season.

As part of the Downtown Ithaca Alliance’s (DIA) Holiday Window Display Competition, over two dozen businesses located throughout downtown have created unique window displays in an effort to entice more people — locals and non-locals alike — to shop local.

Participating businesses have QR codes on their doors or windows, which visitors can scan and then rate the businesses’ displays on a scale of “good” to “excellent.” People can also vote at tinyurl.com/2ld844tn. Submitted votes will decide the “People’s Choice” winner, and a panel of judges will award three additional winners. Winners will be announced Dec. 14. More information is available at tinyurl.com/2fgd7ode.

As DIA Business Support Coordinator Kristina Thelen explained, while downtown has held this sort of display competition in the past, it’s been some time since the last one was held.

“We have a new retail committee that formed this year in the downtown bid,” she said. “The people on the ground — the business owners — really decided that that would be a fun thing to throw their attention behind this holiday season to make this holiday season extra special and worth coming downtown to physically look at these beautiful storefronts and see all the great products inside.”

While the pandemic wasn’t a big factor in the event’s hiatus, Thelen said that the aftermath of the pandemic certainly contributed to the event’s return.

“There was just a lot of distraction that was happening and people not really feeling as inspired to do extra things or do more things,” she said. “So, I think that this is a really great, reinvigorated and inspired attempt to dust it off and to have it be filled with a lot of enthusiasm and energy. And it’s good to not do things every single year because it does get a little tired. And so, we definitely want our businesses to be excited about what things they’re championing and being involved in. And so, this was a great example of people deciding, ‘Yeah, we can be excited about that this year.’”

This year’s event is bigger and better than ever, Thelen added, with more elaborate displays and more businesses, some of which opened their doors after the last run of this contest.

“[Business owners] want to remind our community that downtown is a playful and fun place and that people should really take the time this holiday season to get reacquainted with their downtown if they’ve been away during the COVID times,” Thelen said. “And not only is there great people who work at these businesses and products to be to be gotten during the holiday season, but there’s also just an atmosphere of fun and warmth that comes in a small town — and downtown, specifically — holiday season.”

One participating business is SewGreen (sewgreen.org), which recently moved to Press Bay Court. Owner Wendy Skinner (tinyurl.com/2k9ewyh9) has chosen a theme she described as “It Takes a Village…of Teddy Bears!” For several weeks, Skinner worked to collect donated and borrowed stuffed bears, which now fill the store’s window. She’s partnered with the Village at Ithaca for her display, which will distribute the donated bears to local families after the contest.

“When the DIA first announced the contest, I searched online to find inspiration, but everything looked difficult and expensive,” she said in an email. “So then I thought, what do we really need at holiday time, especially given all the bad news that surrounds us daily? Comfort. Warmth. Calm. A hug. To me, that’s what teddy bears represent.”

Skinner said she wanted to participate not for the prizes but to promote local businesses.

“There’s actually prizes, but that’s not my motivation,” she said in an interview. “My motivation is to have a cute window with the bears, and if people want to vote for us, [that’s] great. I think it’s a way to bring people downtown.”

Another participant is the Cat’s Pajamas (catspajamasithaca.com), which has been in the DeWitt Mall for the entirety of its decades-long life downtown. Owner and founder Jennifer Engel chose a “get out the vote” theme for her display, an homage to Election Day and a reference to this contest’s voting.

“This isn’t as urgent as democracy, but it’s as urgent as come down and visit with us,” she said.

Engel said the biggest reason she’s participating is because she wants to see more foot traffic downtown. She said that over the past year, foot traffic from non-locals has picked back up, but the number of local visitors hasn’t increased at the same pace.

“They’re not coming downtown like they were,” she said. “I’m not going to lie; there’s a lot of construction. Parking is absurd. Everyone is working on trying to fix that. But in the meantime, we still have to support what we used to really appreciate and hang out with a lot. And that’s not just on the visitor; that’s on the local person, that’s on each and every one of us, and that’s also on the merchant side and the restaurant owners’ side. Let’s find ways to remind people to come downtown Ithaca.”

Having participated in this contest before, Engel is glad to see some of the new changes, especially the new digital voting system.

“I think the kids will totally love the QR code, the rating,” she said. “It’s the immediacy of boom, picking your stars and moving on to the next window. It’s not an onerous situation. But it is going to lead to a really fun trail and a tally. And I think we planned it well enough that it starts early enough and ends early enough so there’s still time for ribbon[s] to be presented and the folks who saw and voted to come back down and see the People’s Choice best window and the second place window, because sometimes that’s missing from the dynamic.”

The ongoing contest isn’t the DIA’s only holiday festivity. Just last weekend, downtown celebrated Shop Local Weekend with various deals, events and offerings, and there’s more on the horizon. Darlene Wilber, communications and grants development director for the DIA, is particularly excited for the upcoming Ice and Lights Festival, a rebrand of the much-loved Winter Lights Festival (downtownithaca.com/winterlights-2/).

“The idea behind [the rebrand] is that we’re bringing back the ice carving competition. That was a huge favorite,” Wilber said. “We bring in highly skilled regional ice carvers, and they’re going to be out on the Commons starting on Friday evening. So, that’s Dec. 2. … We’re really excited to have that coming back. It was a huge draw for people and a nice way to celebrate the start of the winter season. So, that’s happening from

Dec. 2 until Saturday, Dec. 10, and includes two weekends filled with activity, the ice carving being one of them.”

For more information about the DIA, visit downtownithaca.com.

Jessica Wickham is the managing editor of Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to them at editorial@VizellaMedia.com.