Winners of this year’s Sarnia-Lambton Celebration of Lights home lighting competition have been announced.
Winners of this year’s Sarnia-Lambton Celebration of Lights home lighting competition have been announced.
The prizes, along with sponsor and volunteer awards, were announced Monday evening by the celebration’s volunteer board.
The Harvey McMichael People’s Choice award went this year to 440 St. Lawrence Court.
The first-place Children’s Choice Award was won by 75 Ashby Cres. while second place was claimed by 280 Laurentian Cres.
Overall, the first place prize went to 177 Christina St. N., with 73 Turner Dr., receiving second prize and 440 St. Lawrence Court receiving third prize.
About 40 homes decorated for the holidays were entered this year, according to Dean Holtz, chairperson of the organization.
Typically, the contest attracts about 30 entries and, initially, organizers were worried when only about 10 had been received through the event website as this year’s deadline approached.
Holtz said that’s when organizers discovered a technical problem with the website, so the entry deadline was extended a few days while that glitch was fixed.
“We fixed the problem, extended it two more days and we got 40 entries,” he said. “We have lots of amazing homes.”
Awards were also given Monday to several of the event’s sponsors and volunteers.
This year’s celebration, which fills a section of Sarnia’s Centennial Park with holiday lights and displays, was able to return to normal following two years of pandemic restrictions.
Those restrictions prevented the celebration from holding its traditional opening night event in the park to officially turn on the lights.
“We feel everything went very well,” Holtz said. “We had great help with the setup and the opening ceremonies went extremely well with the biggest turnout we’ve ever had.”
The celebration relies on volunteers to help set up the displays in the park each year and take them down again to be stored for the following year’s event.
It also relies on donations to help maintain the displays and cover the cost of opening night activities.
Contact information for those wishing to donate can be found on the event’s website, celebrationoflights.comas well as its facebook page.
“If people are still able to donate from the budget, we would appreciate that so we can keep this going every year,” Holtz said.
The displays in the park will be lit evenings until Jan. 1 at 11 p.m.