A letter to the editor this week, from James R. Weldon of East Hampton — floating the idea that this newspaper sponsor a contest for the best business district holiday decorations next December — strikes a chord. It isn’t so much the holiday lights (in “elegant white,” as we mentioned here a few weeks ago, noting a marked increase in wattage in 2023) that we think could use a bit of gingering up, as much as the empty store windows that we’d like to give a goose.
The shop fronts on Main Street and Newtown Lane could stand to be jollier. We’re surely all more than a bit fatigued by all those empty windows. Even among those stores that remain open, relatively few do much seasonal gussying, compared with decades past, when many an animatronic Santa and many a eucalyptus wreath added, as Mr. Weldon says, the requisite warmth.
And so we are here announcing our intention to run a contest, beginning the Saturday after Thanksgiving and running until the Saturday before Christmas, during which a panel of judges will review the shop windows of this village for charm and originality of holiday decorations. The prizes — as yet to be determined — will benefit the winner’s charity of choice.
Mr. Weldon suggests that the panel of judges include the editor of The Star and the mayor of the Village of East Hampton. We hereby issue an invitation to Village Hall, as well as to representatives from the Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce, the Ladies Village Improvement Society, and the Anchor Society. Consider the gauntlet — in this case, a woolly mitten — thrown down.