The winners of the annual holiday decorating contest receive a yard sign and a year's worth of bragging rights.
Other winners are:
Most Traditional: Trudy Austin (The judges were particularly found of her crab pot and geese.)
Most Original: Chip and Helena Stevens
Best Theme: David Scott and Melinda Esham
There's also one Best in Show prize for an Ocracoke business, which was won this year by the Island Ragpicker.
Usually, organizer Teresa O'Neal finds volunteer judges from among the island's visitors, but this year, she says, everyone she talked to was a daytripper and planning to leave before dark. So she called on some people a little closer to home. The judges were Chaeli Moyer, Mary Fulcher-Swain (aided by her 2 year-old daughter, Morgan), and Clifton Styron.
This is Chaeli's first Christmas on Ocracoke, and she's new enough to the island not to know where everybody lives. Clifton is from Davis, NC, and works for the ferries on Ocracoke and stays here for a week at a time. Mary was born and raised on Ocracoke and is Teresa's friend, but she promised me she was an unbiased judge.
Teresa and her husband, Albert, took a scud the night before the judging to scope out where all the Christmas lights are. On contest night, they drive the judges around, making sure they see every decorated house on Ocracoke. "Everyone had a good time," Teresa reported.
Donna O'Neal and Jamie Jackson's house on the Black Road was an obvious contender.
"You might be able to see it from the space station!" said Teresa.
I met the judges there for a photo op, and as we stood out in the cold and frosty, but well-lighted, evening, our talk turned to the old holiday boat parades of yore. Decorated boats of all sizes would parade up and down Silver Lake to the delight of onlookers on shore. Teresa is hankering to see that tradition (and an Annual Blessing of the Fleet) revived. We vowed to make it happen by next Christmas.
"You only got a year to figure that out," Clifton said, teasing us about our eagerness to set a date already.
I sense a new Ocracoke committee forming….. stay tuned for more information about blessings and boat parades.
Enjoy the celebration of lights on Ocracoke this holiday season! If you'd like to see more, please check out the Current's Facebook page, where Crystal has posted dozens of photos of Christmas lights.
