Complete Rules for Holiday Home Decorating Contest

Sponsored by the East Windsor Recreation Department and Commission

This is a fun contest to determine which residence in East Windsor Township has the most creative outdoor holiday decorations for the 2024 season. Show off your spirit and see how you compete with your neighbors! The winner will have their decorations announced and displayed on the East Windsor Township E-News in the beginning of 2025.

General:

1. Contest is open to all residents of East Windsor Township including homeowners, those living in townhomes, or renting apartments. We are not responsible for any rule violations of landlords or HOAs.
2. Entrants should be for your own residence only, though you can spread the word about this contest to others.
3. Decorations will be judged on creativity, not by the size or quantity of lights or displays.
4. Residents who wish to compete shall sign up on the East Windsor Township Recreation Department’s Community Pass website. Please provide the street address for your residence so the decorations can be viewed. This information will only be used for this contest’s purposes.
5. Displays to be judged shall be family friendly and only related to the holiday season.
6. Displays will be photographed from 5:30 to 7:30 pm on the weeknights of December 11 through 16 by the Recreation Director and other members of the Recreation Commission depending on number of entrants and availability. Displays shall be visible from publicly accessible roadways or sidewalks. There should be no need walk or drive on private property to view the display.
7. At least two (2) photographs of the displays from different angles will be taken for use in judging.
8. Judging will occur at a special meeting of the East Windsor Recreation Commission on December 18 at 7:00 pm held via Zoom. The meeting will be open to the public for observation, email recreation@east-windsor.nj.us or matt.n.kohut@gmail.com for a link.
9. Judges for the displays shall consist of members of the East Windsor Recreation Commission as of December 11, 2024 and the East Windsor Township Recreation Director who are in attendance of the special meeting.

Scoring:

1. Depending on number of entrants, the Recreation Director and Chair of the Recreation Commission reserve the right to limit the total number of displays to be scored by the full board during the Zoom meeting for time purposes.
2. Judges will receive prior to the special meeting a document containing photographs of the entries, each identified by numerical entry.
3. Judges have the right to discuss entries during the special meeting. Judges shall rate the displays on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being best. Judges who have a conflict of interest (COI) on a particular display (display of their own residence, provided assistance to the display construction or installation) shall not score the display in question. If there is a COI, the judges’ scores will be averaged for all entries.
4. The winner will be the entry with the highest aggregate score, or in the case of a COI the highest average score.
5. In case of a tie for first place, the judges will discuss the tied entrants to determine a winner.