By Dylan Reubenking
dylan@yelmonline.com
We Love Rainier WA, a non-profit organization, dubs Rainier “The Biggest Little Christmas Town.” The organization aimed to prove its nickname with its inaugural Christmas light contest in the city.
Volunteers from We Love Rainier WA have helped businesses with their Christmas lights in recent years, but this year, they decided to get the residents involved. Registration or entry for the contest was not required; four judges from the organization drove around every road within city limits to find the best lights in Rainier.
“It took us about two hours to do that. We just drove around and took notes and some pictures, and then we had a cup of hot chocolate and went back and forth over who was going to be first, second, third, fourth and fifth,” Robbi Currey, from We Love Rainier WA, said.
The first-place winner — the Deck/Mitchell family on Tipsoo Lane North — took home the first-place prize of a $100 Visa gift card and We Love Rainier WA gear. The second-, third-, fourth- and fifth-place winners also received We Love Rainier WA gear, which included the organization’s new Christmas ornaments that it designed.
The Houx/Walker family on Raintree Loop Court Southeast took second place. The Swenson family on Carver Walk Southeast won third. The Forrest Family on Emerald Lane placed fourth, and the Johnson family on Emerald Lane earned fifth. We Love Rainier WA also recognized Emerald Court Southeast as the best-decorated street in the city.
There were no specific categories for judges to use to determine the winners. They based their judging on their initial reactions to the lights around town and which decorations generated the biggest response, the “wow factor,” Currey said.
“It was more of what the judges thought were the most amazing lights when we drove up,” she added. “There were a lot of really great displays, and we wish we could have awarded way more prizes than we did. But the way that we chose our first place winner was that when we drove up to that house, we all said, ‘Wow.’ And that was kind of it.”
Currey said the judges chose five winners from a pool of 30 houses that were photographed. She added that the city’s residents buy into the belief that Rainier is “The Biggest Little Christmas Town” and that it helps more people stop in the city on their way to Yelm or Tenino.
“It’s between those cities so it kind of gets missed. A lot of people just drive through it,” she said. “Part of the reason why we started doing this was so that people would slow down and notice Rainier a little bit more. We’re trying to build on it so that when people ask where the best places are to see Christmas lights, they think of Rainier.”
We Love Rainier WA also hosted a gingerbread-house contest through Facebook. Residents who submitted photos to the page were also entered into a drawing for a prize. Winners will pick up their prizes and certificates on Wednesday, Dec. 20.
