The City of Knoxville held a window decorating contest this December dubbed the “Window Wonderland Window Decorating Contest,” and I’m sure some of the beautiful holiday displays resulted from that effort. There are other decorations, however, making the city look festive as we bustle about. I’m not sure if it is because we have more retail spaces or if the spirit just became contagious, but there seems to be more lights and color than ever downtown.
I photographed as many as I could, though I no doubt missed some. Others weren’t finished when I passed by, so I don’t have their final product. I took one pass in the daytime and didn’t like the results, so I returned at night. Some of those featuring more than one photograph here may have include one taken during daylight and one afterward depending on which turned out better.
I’d have a hard time choosing a “best,” myself, so I don’t envy the person or group that has to do so. Some of the stores have large windows, some small, and some have multiple windows. How to fairly compare? Impact per square inch?
I also couldn’t help but notice that some of the displays had to cost a lot of money while others were obviously done on a much smaller budget. It’s pretty tough for a small business owner to compete with Mast General, for example.
There are too many photographs for one post, so I’ll split them today and tomorrow. There will be more photographs than writing for these two posts as the photographs speak for themselves. Tomorrow, with a little luck, I may be able to tell you which window front won the contest. You can see if it matches your choice. Have fun.
