If you saw the video... no, your eyes aren't deceiving you.

How did I get involved in the contest?

Since 2020, I’ve been an avid participant in my neighborhood's Christmas lights contest that started in 2016; my fledgling display won 2nd place in the Showman category in 2020, but in 2021, my ever-evolving display with hands-on repairs won Showman, which was my initial goal, however, I had the ultimate goal in my sights...

In 2022, my brand-new Wild Winter Wonderland display handily won Showman again by introducing long-planned major upgrades: flickering lantern Bluetooth speakers playing Christmas songs along with the flashy Candy Cane Lane, Rudolph's Rainbow Road, and Mystical White Stag, which was originally was just a steady-on cool-white body with golden antlers until I enhanced it with my last-minute DIY upgrade of colorful-changing lights and reversed antlers (deviating from the original reindeer design).

All this in order to fulfill my vision of making the Mystical White Hart the centerpiece at the heart of it all, looking to the sky and magically summoning snow with the sparkling snowflake lights while the nearby deer and owls notice the snowfall in the Wild Winter Wonderland... But in the contest's 7-year history, this victory was a 2-in-1 historic achievement not only because my display was the first Showman Winner ever to win the Grand Prize, but also because it narrowly defeated the giant 5-year Griswold Winner that had rightfully won the Grand Prize 4 years in a row! After my 3-year relentless quest of finally earning the elusive crown, it was such an incredible grand slam for the little entrant that could, the Spectacular Showman, standing up against the insurmountable behemoth, the Griswold Goliath, thus forever going down as the most legendary year. I had hoped to see if she would redesign her display to achieve new heights in 2023...

Why are the results so backwards this time?

However, despite my recreation of the Grand Prize Award-Winning Wild Winter Wonderland with minor additions in 2023, it supposedly did not win Showman against another display that many believe clearly still does not come close to the Wild Winter Wonderland; their display already lost against mine in 2022 while in 2023, their only new addition is the sidewalk arches. Even more puzzling is that 2022's Classical Winner had more stuff and supposedly won Classical again... with less stuff in 2023, but it also supposedly won the 2023 Grand Prize while their display is blander than what supposedly won Showman...

Make it make sense.

Lastly, the most confusing result was that a local daycare (a three-year Santa’s Workshop Winner) also supposedly lost to a barely decorated local storefront despite many saying there’s no doubt the caretaker's entry is much better plus she also had new stuff in 2023; her yard is completely filled with inflatables in a scene straight out of the North Pole, which is clearly a hallmark of "Santa’s Workshop." She said her daycare kids were sad that they didn’t win and I said they shouldn’t have to be sad… because they clearly should have won Santa’s Workshop.

What happened after the announcement?

It’s as if the Grinch teamed up with Krampus and the Gang of Gremlins because the neighbors are getting Scrooged here and most neighbors still don’t know that the caretaker and I re-entered for 2023 because the annual Google map of entries still has not been posted after 30 days since the perplexing announcement on Dec. 12th when in the past, the maps were posted days before the announcements. After the bewildering announcement, I texted back the organizer politely asking if the contest received my entry and she confirmed it, but she indicated no intention to look into the backwards results... We still can’t believe there were only 7 entries overall and that no one, not even the 5-year Griswold Winner, entered the Griswold category for 2023; I read that some people said mean comments to her about her display for being excessive and that's why she put nothing up outside for 2023, but as you've seen in the comparison video, her 2022 display absolutely fulfilled the Griswold criteria to the letter.

Shout out to the 5-year Griswold Winner and 4-year Grand Prize Champion! You're the only neighbor to inspire me to step up my decorating game even during spooky season after 15 years of no Halloween decorations, which I considered to be my practice run before the 2022 Christmas lights contest.

My brand-new Spooky Snare was a rousing success on Halloween in 2022! I was so lucky to find my favorite adult-sized animatronic made by Spirit Halloween, the last $300 Lord Raven, that a manager freely offered to sell me for 50% off! I also had to get the last Fogging Skull Pile, but I opted for a cheaper fog machine with a wireless controller and built-in fading multicolor lights from Amazon because I knew my setup design would bounce the lights off the pale flat back of the Fogging Skull Pile up towards Lord Raven, thus illuminating his visage in darkness and making him appear much more menacing in fog.

I not only handed out candy, but also Halloween stickers (ideal for those with allergies), which were a hit with the kids and teen girls! By the way, the Jumping Spider especially scared many trick-or-treating kids and teens; even a few screamed at the top of their lungs! Mission Accomplished! The Spooky Snare doles out tricks and treats!

Anyway, we're also curious to know who the other two contest entries were and for which categories. I tried raising awareness of the fiasco in the neighborhood Facebook group with a rationally worded post, but an admin removed it after 1 hour, silencing me, thus the creation of our petition. During the Facebook live video awards announcement, the organizer said that sponsor prizes couldn’t be secured for 2nd place, so for some reason, she didn’t mention the runners-up; I’m sure most entrants care more about which won 1st place and 2nd place rather than the prizes. After all, if I hadn’t known I had gotten 2nd place in 2020, I’d have not known I was on the right path and I might’ve not brought the Wild Winter Wonderland to life for all to enjoy.

How did the fiasco happen?

As anyone can clearly see in the comparison video, there’s no doubt that a mistake was made in the calculation of the scores as if the scoring system was done backwards; the judges are anonymous and if they were new this year, I think they misunderstood the scoring system such as thinking 1 means best and 10 means least akin to a ranking system, but the numbers are actually points where the highest win, which would explain all the results in reverse quality. The disparity of caliber between the known entries and supposed winners is too vast, so to write off the results as close races with any judge’s personal taste possibly tilting the edge to the supposed winners is absurd, especially after 7 years of kosher results.

I did not spend 4 days and 4 nights without a shower to rebuild the Wild Winter Wonderland with only a few hours of sleep each night and consequently high blood pressure plus my hands, neck, shoulders, back, and knees killing me only to be met with this baffling travesty. The egregious fiasco raises many eyebrows after watching the comparison video because seeing is disbelieving, so the integrity of our beloved community event is at stake here.

How do we find out what exactly went wrong?

Therefore, we call for an immediate audit of the 2023 contest's scoring process to rectify this fiasco; the judges need to verify their list of address entries, double check their score sheets, and correct any mistakes. We demand transparency in how points are awarded, assurance that all entries are judged fairly based on their merit rather than any other factors, and a new announcement of the correct results with the actual winners including the runners-up even if sponsor prizes couldn't be secured for 2nd place; we still want to know.

We believe that such an audit will restore faith in our cherished tradition while ensuring fairness for all participants moving forward. Otherwise, the contest's integrity can't be trusted going forward because how can future entrants believe in the legitimacy of the contest when quality doesn't matter anymore and the only way to win is by merely rolling the dice once every year while praying to Lady Luck?

Switch to online ranked choice voting by every household in the neighborhood for future contests?

On that note, perhaps to prevent another fiasco and to restore trust in the contest, the anonymous judging arrangement should switch to an online community-based ranked choice voting (RCV) setup where only verified households in the neighborhood can vote. My proposal is that every entrant should be given enough time to set up their displays by Dec. 10th at 6pm when a 10-day neighborhood judging period would begin, which would allow any neighbor with a busy schedule to see every entrant's display and vote for the best lights based on each category's criteria with votes kept secret until the final results are announced on Dec. 21st just a few days before Christmas; Dec. 20th would be a buffer day to make sure the process properly worked or to sort out any issues before making the announcement on Dec. 21st. www.rcv123.org is one free RCV online service with useful options for organizers to implement, so I highly recommend that whomever organizes future contests to choose the most ideal online RCV service with anti-duplicate and anti-nonresident measures.

In the meantime, please sign our petition to investigate the fiasco and spread the word! Let’s deck the halls with happiness and turn the frowns of the daycare kids into smiles of joyful justice!

www.Change.org/ChristmasLights

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!
¡Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad!