(Drum roll please) And the 2009 Holiday Windows Contest Winners are...

Another successful Holiday Windows Contest is in the books! With nearly triple the number of votes from last year (!), the people have spoken and this year’s top honors go to…

1st Place: LeAnne Iverson and Benjamin Banneker Academy Students for “Cross Culture Holiday” at Optimum Care Rehab. (Benjamin Banneker Academy for Community Development is a public high school located at Clinton and Park Avenue, and we were thrilled to have local students participate in this project!)
2nd Place: Katie Huffman for “Winter Solstice” at Pillow Café
3rd Place: Benjie Sirota and Ezra Silverman for “Holiday Oasis” at Zaytoons

The first place team receives gift certificates valued at $250 to participating Myrtle Avenue businesses, while the second and third place winners receive gift certificates valued at $100 and $50 respectively. Congratulations to all the artists and merchants on a fantastic year. The voters had a tough job this year, given how amazing all the windows were! MARP staff have decided to bestow ‘honorable mentions’ to a few of the entries that made a strong showing in the polls and really captured the spirit of the contest. Here are just a few of these awards, look out for more in upcoming blog posts in the next week or so. In the meantime, check out all the contest entries in this Flickr set .

Honorable Mentions go to:
The ‘Mad Holiday Science’ Award, for their funky, robotic incarnation of Santa, goes to Daniel Goers and Melissa Chow for their window Atomic Winter at Wally’s Square Root Café.

The ‘Holly Jolly Myrtle’ Award, for playfully bringing the merchant’s theme to life, Team Tire-Bouchon for their window Uncork the Jolly at Gnarly Vines.

The ‘Miracle on Myrtle” Award, for a truly joyful and innovative representation of holiday spirit, goes to Ibou Ndoye for his window Holiday Time at the Barber Shop at Miracle’s.

Many thanks to all of the merchants, artists, and voters who participated in this year's Holiday Windows Contest. Hopefully we helped to bring some unexpected holiday cheer to your stroll along Myrtle Avenue!