Downtown Plant City business owners know how to draw spectators when decorating their windows with elaborate lights and props during the holidays. Now they’re being recognized for it.
The Plant City Main Street Merchants Committee held its first contest last December, to see which businesses had the most catchy Christmas sceneries.
Judges glanced from window to window as they walked through the downtown district.
After surveying up to 20 windows, they chose Title Solutions Group of Florida to be the first-place winner.
The company – which offers title insurance among other services, was awarded with a trophy.
“We’re excited to have been chosen to have the bragging rights for the year,” said Elizabeth Waraksa of Title Solutions. “We’re going to relish in it a little bit.”
Located on Reynolds Street, the office’s clear window displayed string lights and larger ones placed on top of wrapped gift boxes. Along with ornaments, there was an elf and a snowman whose bodies were made up of Christmas trees.
Also, the company decided to create a non-traditional atmosphere with palm trees painted on the glass, with the writing ‘Deck the Palms.’
“Florida is more tropical than a snowy Christmas, so palm trees just seemed to be the theme we landed on,” said Waraksa.
The other establishments that made it in the top five were: Marzucco Real Estate in second place; The Crafted Butterfly in third place; Three Hands Mead in fourth place; and Krazy Kup in fifth place.
However, the competition downtown was still impressive with windows displaying Christmas trees of varying sizes – decked with ornaments, train sets, miniature homes surrounded in snow, Disney characters, candy canes, cut-out gingerbread men, angels, and of course Mr. Clause himself.
Greg Williams is the Merchants Committee chairman and owner of the Brick City Bricks Lego store.
He said that he and his team wanted to try something new and innovative for downtown, and that’s how the contest came about.
“That’s a good idea,” Williams recalled saying to himself. “We’ll just have a window decorating contest.”
“I know other towns that do that too. I thought that would be something fun, and that’s what it ended up being.”
His shop also brought a holiday vibe with its window displaying a Christmas-themed Lego set.
He said that the seasonal fun is an opportunity to attract people to downtown shops.
Williams encourages Plant City residents to volunteer as judges for the next holiday season.
As for Title Solutions, the company is planning a window display celebrating various holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Easter, and St. Patrick’s Day.