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

..._

Door into Winter, Part Four

Our Christmas door won the award for "Originality."

Last weekend I was at the computer with my headphones on, enjoying a game of Civilization IV and some DMB, when my wife exclaimed, "There's someone at the door!" It was 9:30pm on a Friday night; who could be at the door? I opened the door to find a group of carolers. They sang a couple of songs with great gusto, but not so much talent and piled into a large black SUV and drove off (we did not invite them in--the house was not ready for visitors). My wife and I have laughed for days about it.

The seven young men (six seniors and one sophomore) were my students. A couple of them had mentioned they might come a-caroling a couple of weeks ago, but I had written if off as typical teenager hyperbole. A few days before, a student had asked me how I would feel if I got t-p'ed. I have gone ten years as a teacher without such a blessing so I equivocated and told him that my neighbors probably wouldn't appreciate it. In retrospect, I think they were trying to plan some kind of event and couldn't decide between a good t-p or caroling. That they actually surveyed me to find out my preference is rather endearing. I approve of their choice.


Peace

Door into Winter, Part Three

I have been writing about the Christmas door decorating contests at my school. You can read the previous two installments here and here.

One year, I had a class of underachievers in a US History class. We spent a number of days planning outrageous things that I would never actually allow. At last, one of my students said, "I have a mounted deer's head at home. Let's stick it on the door." From that moment of inspiration we came up with an award-winning door that was both simple and unique. We mounted the deer's head on the door, put a red nose on it, and put a big sign above it that said, "Doing our part to restore the true meaning of Christmas." Under that was a list of the names of each of the reindeer with most of their names crossed off.

Fortunately, our high school is in a separate building as the lower school.

Our door for this year is complete and was judged this morning. No word on the winner though two judges had good things to say about it later in the day. Sadly, I cannot share the details of this door as it gives away my secret identity. Those of you in the know, it is a play on "I've been dreaming..."

Last thing: I got a google hit for "Christmas door decorating contest". How about that?

Peace

Door into Winter, Part Two

For part one, click here.

My favorite door was my last one. We cut out a simple green tree on a white background and hot glued sugar gum drops to the tree. We then stuck a toothpick into each sugar gum drop and hung a white ornament from each toothpick. Around each ornament we tied a yellow ribbon. We wrote this letter and pasted it to the door:

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.


“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” John 15:13

I should probably do the same door until it is no longer necessary to have our boys and girls overseas.

Peace