Christmas Door Decorating Contest! Veterans' Day Edition

I have had an abnormally large number of "hits" from people googling some variation of "Christmas Door Decorating Contest." Those hits have taken people to my post from last year entitled "Door Into Winter" in which I describe my first foray into decorating my classroom door. I lost that year and the next but won some kind of prize for every year after that.

In hopes that someone will find this information helpful, here are the other doors I have done.

One year a student brought in a stuffed and mounted buck's head. We put a red nose on it, mounted it on the door, and posted a statement, "1st Period US History: Doing
our part to restore the true meaning of Christmas." There was also a "hit" list of reindeer names with Rudolph's name checked off and a picture of Santa with a "no" sign through it. It was in incredibly poor taste but won for most creative. Read more about it here.

My favorite door was the last one we did (I posted about it here). It was very simple but very heartfelt and meaningful. We cut out a large, Christmas tree from green construction paper. We then hotglued (can that be used as a verb?) red and green spice drops on to the paper as ornaments. Then we stuck a toothpick in each spice drop. From each toothpick we hung a simple white ornament with a yellow ribbon tied around it and the name of a foreign country written upon it. We then posted a statement saying:

Tie a Yellow Ribbon ‘Round the Christmas Tree

This year, as hundreds of thousands of US troops are deployed around the world, it is our hope that you will take a moment to pause and reflect on the sacrifices made by these brave men and women. Many of them will be putting their lives in danger throughout the Christmas season. All of them would prefer to be home with their families. Few of them will have a Silent Night. Some of them will die.

We ask that you would take one of these ornaments for your own tree at home. Each one has the name of a country where US troops are presently deployed. The yellow ribbon has not only become a symbol of the desire for all of our troops to return home safely, but will also draw the eye to this uncharacteristic color for a Christmas tree. When you see this ornament, we ask that you say a short prayer for the safety of our troops, the protection of their families, and peace to all.

We also ask that you take the time to read a sampling of letters from troops away from their homes at Christmas during the American Civil War.
Finally, we ask for a renewed dedication to the preservation of our civil liberties and our unique American heritage so that these sacrifices shall not have been in vain.

I was saddened to discover that that was to be the last year that we had a contest. I was planning on doing the same thing every year. I wish I could still do it. If you wish to use this idea, please do and let me know. I would be thrilled to see this become a tradition somewhere.

Peace

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