DDA Staff is excited to bring back a fun, and creative holiday tradition to the Downtown, Depot Town, and West Cross districts. Last year, all participating storefronts displayed great care and artistry, and helped make Ypsilanti a festive destination for the holidays.
Businesses are encouraged to decorate their windows and storefronts for the holiday season. The DDA captures this positive holiday energy by holding a public vote, marketing the competition, and providing a small reward to the most popular storefronts.
- Best Overall Display
- Best Lighting Display
- Best Traditional Display
- Most “Ypsi” Display
- Most Inclusive Display
- Most Engaging Display
All categories are up to each voters interpretation. Traditional doesn’t necessarily imply Christmas themed, most “ypsi” means weird and wacky to some and to other it is literal. Most engaging might mean interactive, or might evoke the most feeling.
The public will also vote on the above categories. Each category winner will receive $500 in gift cards, distributed in the same way as those given to voting participants. The “Best Overall Display” winner will receive $1,000 in gift cards. Each storefront can only win one category.
This program will be very helpful publicity for many shops gearing up for the holiday shopping season and we want to help support this effort. The DDA will place QR codes on each window display that the public can scan to vote.
Business Submissions must be in by Tuesday, December 2nd.
Installations must be completed and photographed and submitted to the DDA NO LATER THAN Thursday, December 4 at NOON and official voting will begin Friday, December 5th coinciding with First Fridays Ypsilanti.
Voting will close on Sunday, January 4th at midnight.
Winners will be announced in the second week of January.Eligibility Requirements:
- Must be located within the DDA Districts
- Must have physical or digital Gift cards or certificates available** for the DDA to purchase and pick up by Monday January 16th. “Guest Lists” or tabs in lieu of gift cards will not be accepted.
- In order to accept the prize money, winning businesses will be asked to provide w9, ACH form, and a copy of a voided check, unless they have already received money from the DDA in the past.
- Willing to put a QR code in front display for voting.
**If gift cards are not in your business model (ie. you’re a real estate or financial office in the DDA) and you want to participate, we invite you to have a conversation with us about how this competition can benefit your business. Last year, we had a business compete for another retail business in the DDA. The prize can also help support your business create a free event or workshop that will bring guests to the district during the months of January or February. The point of this competition is not only to create fun competition in the city, but to incentivize voters to come back to the district and shop or dine during the slowest season for food and retail. You will be invited to put any single page promotional material into the 100 gift cards we distribute into the community if your storefront wins.
Click HERE to go to the submission form! We are excited to see how decorations turn out!