Annual Christmas house lighting contest winners announced

Of the many houses lit up with Christmas cheer this holiday season one house in particular caught the attention of judges during the annual Sidney House Lighting Contest.

Julia Juedes won first place and $100 in the contest for her residential decorations at 1259 Clark Dr.

Second place was awarded to Stan Belieu at 1315 Solano Dr. who received $75 for his efforts, while Dennis Hicks at 1452 Summit Dr. received $50 and third place in the contest.

The Griswald Award along with $100 was awarded to Jeff Hammond at 2205 12th Ave. for his efforts as well.

It was difficult to choose a winner this year because so many houses participated, said Ramona Joyce the executive director of the visitor’s center.

“It’s not an easy job,” Joyce said. “It was really hard this year because there were so many houses with a lot of lights on them.”

Cheyenne County Visitor’s Center members host the event every year and funds are raised by the committee.

Joyce said that the House Lighting Contest has been held in Sidney for over 10 years and will continue to be a yearly tradition.

Judges for the contest vary every year and are sometimes members of the board or community volunteers, she said.

What judges look for when assessing the decorated houses also differ with each judge.

Joyce said that a judge could prefer looks on things such as beauty, tradition or new styles; it’s really up to them.

“I know our judges went out several evenings in one week and took different sections of town each night,” Joyce said.

Judging for the event took place last week so that community members had time to innately decorate their houses to their liking.

Sidney residents were told in advance what days the houses would be judged and were asked to leave their lights on for the whole week so that the judges could work.

Winners will be mailed checks for the amount that they won, Joyce said.

“Winners don’t have to do anything, we just mail them a check,” said Joyce, who joked that the money would help pay for the increase in the resident’s electricity bill for December.

Next year there is talk of expanding the contest to include businesses that get festive with their lights and of putting a sign at the houses acknowledging that they were the winners, Joyce said.

“We have never thought of it before but a lot of the businesses have really nice displays,” she said.

Joyce said that this contest helps ring in the holiday season and to get the community involved.

“This helps community spirit and for people to feel good about the season. They feel good about the community itself too, because they are making the community look better,” Joyce said.