Deck Your Halls Winners Crowned

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

With the holiday season coming to a close and the lights coming down from the houses, the Palisadian-Post reveals the winners of the 2018 Deck Your Halls home decorating contest.

Charles and Joanna Curtis in the Alphabet Streets were voted Best Decked Out Hall.

“It feels really good,” Charles said of the win. “It’s a lot of hard work, so it’s nice to feel appreciated for putting out so much effort.”

The Curtis family, who has lived in the Palisades for six years and decorated their home each of them, previously won the DIY/Originality Award in 2016.

“This year we did it a little bit different,” Charles said, explaining that he pulled some inspiration from the 2004 Tim Allen film “Christmas with the Kranks.”

“One of the things I took away from it was that they all decorate the roof,” he said. So this year, the Curtis house added slant lines of lights to the roof instead of just outlining.

“I had to buy 10 more sets of lights,” Charles shared.

Jack and Sharon Sutton—also in the Alphabet Streets—took home the prize for DIY/Originality.

“We’ve been decorating our home for as long as we can remember,” Jack shared with the Post after learning they won. “It feels great.”

The Sutton family has lived in the Palisades for 44 years and has decorated at one level or another—including while raising their son in the home—since then.

“This year we added the wraps around the trees and added something around the gate,” Jack said.

This is the first time the Sutton home won a Deck Your Halls prize, but the house won the Fourth of July Home Decorating Contest five years ago. Jack credits his grandson for that prize.

“When we won the Fourth of July contest, our son and daughter-in-law were here,” he explained. “Our grandson decided we were missing something because nowhere anywhere did it say ‘USA.’”

The Sutton family added a “big USA” on the windows, which was the thing the judges revealed to be the deciding factor that year. 

For winning the Deck Your Halls contest, the Sutton and Curtis families received a trophy snowman, complete with hundreds of dollars in gift cards to local businesses.

Winners will dine at Palisades Pizza, Café Vida, Juicy Ladies, Fiesta Feast, K Bakery, Pinocchio, Palisades Garden Café, Coffee Bean and Kayndaves. They can indulge in treats from McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams, The Yogurt Shoppe and Sweet Rose Creamery, and visit Hi-Lites, SKINxFIVE, Ronny’s Market and the Bay Club.