RiverScene Lights of Havasu Christmas Lights Contest: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the RiverScene Lights of Havasu Christmas Lights Contest, and who runs it?

RiverScene Magazine, a local publication serving Lake Havasu City, Arizona, runs a holiday decorating competition called the Lights of Havasu contest. Its announcement story, written by Janet Cruz, speaks directly to households that go all out for the season: anyone who dresses up a home in a strong theme is invited into a reader-decided race. No jury appears anywhere in the announcement; the magazine hands the verdict to the public, which picks a favorite among the decorated houses.

The honor at stake is Best theme. Directions the story floats for a winning display include "funny, movies, music, festive, military, veteran appreciation" and comparable ideas, so the ballot rewards imagination rather than sheer volume of bulbs. That framing makes this a homes-and-craftsmanship contest, not a business popularity list.

The balloting stays in-house as well. Readers vote at the announcement story on riverscenemagazine.com, which doubles as the doorway to the poll once the voting link goes live, and no external polling vendor is named anywhere in the notice.

Which editions of Lights of Havasu are confirmed, and when does the vote run?

Lights of Havasu is a returning event on the magazine's calendar rather than a one-off stunt. Confirmed editions ran in 2022 and 2025, and the program is treated as an annual fixture. The announcement's own opening, "It's that time of year again," is the language a publication reserves for a tradition its readers already recognize.

The voting stretch is printed plainly: "Voting will begin on December 15 and will end at midnight on December 20." The same notice says the link for voting will be posted on December 15, so the whole public phase hangs on that link appearing inside the story. A reader comment from the 2022 edition shows how much that matters; Kassandra Doyle asked at 9:10 pm on December 17, 2022, "Where is the link for public voting for Xmas lights??", hunting for the very link the notice promises.

Plenty about the contest stays off the announcement. It names no prize, no post-vote winners story, and no deadline for submitting a house before voting starts. Any entry round, tiebreaker or award presentation falls outside what the notice covers; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter actually cast a vote in Lights of Havasu?

Finding the ballot

The sequence starts on the announcement story itself. From December 15 the story carries the voting link, and following it brings the decorated houses up on screen. Each entry presents a themed display, and the choice put to readers is which home nails its theme best.

What the device rule means

The printed constraint reads "One vote per mobile device." That ties a supporter's say to the phone or tablet in hand, so a household cannot multiply its influence by tapping the same screen over and over. Whether a desktop browser earns a separate say is not spelled out in the announcement, and the notice likewise describes no account creation step before voting.

Because the limit is written around mobile hardware, voting on a phone is the expected path. Plan the visit inside the December window, settle on the house whose theme impresses you most, and submit before the midnight December 20 close.

How does this ballot compare with other Arizona reader-vote contests?

Lake Havasu City's contest sits inside a wider Arizona set of public-vote ballots, several of which have guides of their own here: the Courier Cares Christmas Lighting Contest, the 2025 MVDN Best of, the 2026 Best of Sedona Kudos, the 2026 Best of Verde Valley, the 2026 Prescott Readers' Choice and A Taste of AZ People's Choice Award.

The sharpest contrast is subject matter. Lights of Havasu judges private residences dressed up for the holidays, while ballots such as Prescott Readers' Choice or Best of Verde Valley rank local businesses and services. The pace differs too, since this vote compresses into a mid-December stretch with a hard midnight close, and the mobile device rule shapes how support is gathered in a way broader reader polls rarely spell out.

Among the neighbours, the Courier Cares contest is the closest cousin in subject matter, since it also celebrates holiday lighting, even though its rules and windows are set separately from RiverScene Magazine's.

How can a supporter help a house climb the Lights of Havasu ballot?

The device rule is the strategic heart of this contest: with each mobile device worth a single vote, reaching more distinct phones beats any amount of repeated tapping on the same screen. Supporters backing a particular house do best by circulating the announcement's voting link during the December 15 to 20 stretch and reminding friends that the theme category rewards creative displays, whether funny, drawn from movies or music, festive, military or veteran appreciation in spirit.

RiverScene Magazine's announcement prints no policy on organized voting pushes, so read its wording before arranging any outside assistance. General outreach tactics are collected at how to get more votes online, and the background on paid vote support for award-style ballots sits on buy award votes.