Danville Holiday Storefront Vote (Auggie Elf Holiday Hunt): How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Danville Holiday Storefront Vote?

The Town of Danville, California, runs a holiday display program through its Recreation, Arts and Community Services team together with Economic Development. Its current form is the Auggie Elf Holiday Hunt, a page on danville.ca.gov under Holidays in Danville and Find The Fun in Danville. The town's official website describes it with a challenge: "Can you find all of the Auggie Elves hiding throughout Downtown Danville? Give it a shot!"

The hunt invites everyone to explore the festive holiday displays across Downtown Danville, and the page adds a reminder to vote for favorites. The Auggie Elves are the hook for the whole program: a visitor who arrives to look for hiding elves ends up walking past storefronts and window scenes, and the vote turns that stroll into feedback for the businesses that decorated. In other words, a storefront decorating contest and an elf-spotting game share a single page, and the vote decides which displays visitors liked best. No business is named in the available text, and no prize is printed.

What are the confirmed editions and the voting deadline?

The confirmed editions are 2024 and 2025. The 2024 edition went by the name Danville Holiday Storefront Decorating Contest, and its title line adds Swing into Danville 2024. The 2025 edition carried the Auggie Elf Holiday Hunt vote. The page's reminder gives the only date it prints: "Don't forget to vote for your favorites now through January 4."

The text does not say which year that January 4 falls in, and it does not give an opening day, so a reader should treat the deadline as a seasonal marker; confirm on the live ballot each cycle. A holiday program that spans the turn of the year naturally ends in the first days of January, which fits the wording but is not a printed rule.

How does a visitor vote for a favorite display?

The mechanic combines walking and voting. A visitor opens the town page, views the map of participating businesses, explores the displays downtown and then votes for favorites on the page. The page speaks of "favorites" in the plural, which suggests more than a single choice is possible, but it prints no count and no limit.

The program's names tell a small story. In 2024 the contest was a decorating contest for storefronts under the Swing into Danville banner, so the audience judged the work of businesses. In 2025 the page reframed the event around a character, Auggie the elf, and a hunt across downtown, so the audience became participants in a game as well as voters. Both versions keep the same core, a public choice among festive displays, and both live on the town's official site.

Whether the elves must be found first, whether an email or sign-in is needed, and whether residents and visitors vote on equal terms are all unprinted. The sensible habit is to read the page, walk the displays and vote early rather than on the last day. Because the page sits on the official town site, a visitor needs nothing beyond the town's own page.

How does it compare with other California ballots?

California's siblings on this site are mostly regional polls that rank businesses: Marin, Silicon Valley, Orange County, the Central Valley and San Diego each have a program. The 2024 GGBR Calendar Contest is a photo ballot of a different kind.

Danville's program differs in being a town event rather than a media poll. A readers' poll invites a wide audience to name favorite restaurants, salons and shops across a region, whereas this ballot is limited to what stands downtown during the holiday season, and a supporter can check the nominees in person by walking the streets. That makes the vote unusually visual: displays are lit, hung and arranged, and the voter's judgment rests on what they saw, not on habit or loyalty.

Beyond that, the program is a municipal event, not a publication feature. The voters are people walking downtown, the subject is decorated storefronts, and the host is a municipality. Readers comparing California ballots can open Best of Marin, Best of Silicon Valley or Best of Orange County.

How can businesses and visitors build support?

A storefront earns votes by being worth a photograph and being easy to find. Businesses can point customers to the town page and the map, and neighbors can pass the address along. The votes guide covers outreach for public ballots, and the buy votes page describes paid support in general terms.

The town prints no statement on outside help, so its own page decides what counts. A business weighing paid support should read the legal position page and the town's wording together, because a municipality's rules decide which votes stand.

A practical plan for a storefront is to treat the vote as a design challenge first. A clear focal point in the window, good lighting at dusk and a sign that mentions the Auggie Elf Holiday Hunt help passersby remember which display to pick. A short note at the register that says votes close on January 4 reminds customers to act before the deadline, and a simple flyer with the town page address makes it easy. After the vote, a thank-you in the window or on social pages keeps neighbors engaged for next season.