Kenosha.com Holiday Spirit Awards: How Voting Works & How to Win

What are the Kenosha.com Holiday Spirit Awards?

The Holiday Spirit Awards is a seasonal best-of program run by Kenosha.com, the local web publication whose name doubles as the city's, for Kenosha in Kenosha County, Wisconsin. Instead of surveying restaurants, shops and services across a wide slate, the ballot narrows to a lone festive subject: the lights residents hang each winter.

The page frames its question with humor, asking whether a household is "more Clark Griswold or traditional," or perhaps "something totally different," and welcomes every approach in between. Its invitation reads: "No matter your preference, Kenosha.com wants to see your favorite Christmas displays as part of our 2024 Kenosha Holiday Spirit Awards contest."

The format is a public vote: the community, not a judging panel, decides which displays earn recognition. The working ballot is posted at https://www.kenosha.com/holiday-spirit-awards/ and carries each season's call for entries.

Why the themed frame matters

Because the subject never drifts from decorations, the audience differs from a general choice poll: homeowners and decorating enthusiasts rather than every retail category in town. That shapes how support is built, since a display has to be seen and talked about, not merely listed.

Which editions have run, and which dates are confirmed?

Two editions of the program are documented: 2022 and 2024. Both played out in December of their year, matching the holiday subject, and the 2024 ballot carried a banner reading "Nominations Now open: Kenosha.com is Looking for the Best Holiday Lights Displays!"

That same page set the round's hard line in bold: "Submissions due by Sunday, December 22, 2024." December therefore functioned as the collection month, with entries closing on the 22nd and the remainder of the month left for whatever stage follows.

Outside that month, precision fades. The page prints no opening day for the window, and Kenosha.com names no round after 2024 anywhere on it. Whether a ballot appeared in the gap between the two documented years is likewise not addressed on the site.

The structural gaps are equally plain. Kenosha.com's page lists no award categories beyond the lights theme and prints no per-household vote rule or eligibility terms; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

A pair of documented years marks the program as recurring rather than a fleeting experiment, though the spacing between them argues for treating the schedule as loose until the publisher states otherwise.

How does a supporter take part in the ballot today?

Participation begins with a submission, not with a candidate list. The confirmed stage asked readers to put forward the displays they admire, so the opening move is visiting the Holiday Spirit Awards page on kenosha.com and reading that season's call.

In 2024 the call welcomed every style of decorator, from full Griswold spectacle to a strictly traditional arrangement, and set the entry cut-off for a Sunday in late December. Anyone nominating in a future round should expect a similar rhythm but verify the printed date, since the page is the only place the deadline is stated.

Once entries close, the program moves to its public-vote conclusion, the shape of which Kenosha.com has not described on the page. Supporters should therefore watch the same URL for the next stage rather than assuming a format.

To sum the flow up in a line: entry comes before anything else, the community verdict comes after it, and the page in between decides everything else.

Where does this ballot sit among Wisconsin's reader-choice programs?

Wisconsin's page family here is dense with citywide choice ballots: Best of the Valley in Appleton, Best of Madison and Janesville CommunityVotes sit alongside kin in Milwaukee, Eau Claire and Green Bay.

The Kenosha entry splits from that pack in scope. Where a metro-wide choice survey spreads itself across the year and across every category of local life, the Holiday Spirit Awards attaches itself to a lone festive subject and to the weeks around the holidays. Its market is likewise tighter: Kenosha and the surrounding county rather than a sprawling metro.

That narrowness is also the appeal for entrants. A homeowner with an ambitious light display competes in a field of decorators, not against plumbers and pizza joints, and the reward is seasonal bragging rights in a program the city's own publication promotes. For readers weighing where their support matters most, a themed December ballot offers a shorter, sharper race than an open-ended city survey.

How can a display's backer rally more support in this contest?

The confirmed stage rewarded early, vivid entries, so begin there: submit the display as soon as the season's call appears and describe what makes it distinctive, whether that is Griswold-scale ambition or a cleanly traditional look. Neighbors who drive past the house each December are the natural base of support, so point them to the ballot page directly.

Kenosha.com prints no statement on outside assistance for entrants, so anyone weighing paid campaigning has only general practice to lean on. Services that work award-style public ballots are outlined on this award-ballots page, and our votes guide covers outreach tactics that suit a neighborhood contest.

Whatever route a backer takes, the organizer's own terms outrank everything else, and those terms are not currently printed on the ballot page.