Public polls

Holiday decorating contest

Let everyone vote on the holiday decorations

Photograph each decorated office, door, gingerbread house or front porch, put up to six in one poll, and post the link in Teams, Slack or the group chat. People vote from their phones, and the winner is clear before the party.

Your poll

Up to 6 entries. One link. A clear winner

38/140
Contest ideas:
Who should vote?

Anyone with the link can see these photos. Do not add private or sensitive images

Waiting for your pick

1 2 3 or 4

Red door with a Christmas wreath and lights
Red door with a Christmas wreath and lights · Pexels
Green door with a Christmas wreath
Green door with a Christmas wreath · Pexels
Office decorated for Christmas with a tree
Office decorated for Christmas with a tree · Pexels

Contest rules you can copy

A rules template for an office or door decorating contest. Replace the parts in brackets.

[Company] Holiday Decorating Contest

Who can enter: every team or department, one entry per team.
What to decorate: your office door, desk area or break room.
Theme: [theme, or any holiday theme].
Budget: up to [$30] per team. Handmade and recycled materials are welcome.
Decorating: from [December 1] to [December 12]. Every entry is photographed on [December 13].
Voting: everyone votes online at [link] from [December 15] to [December 17]. One vote per person; please vote for another team, not your own.
Winner: the entry with the most votes. Prize: [prize], announced at the holiday party on [December 18].
Safety: keep doors, exits and fire equipment clear. No candles or open flames.

Judging criteria for a decorating contest

With a public vote, people weigh all of this at once. If you also have judges, give each criterion 1 to 5 points and count the public vote as one more criterion.

Creativity

An idea nobody else had, not just more tinsel.

Theme

How well the entry fits the theme you announced.

Craft

Neat work and handmade parts that still look good up close.

Use of space

The whole door or desk is part of the design, not one corner.

Seen from the hallway

What people notice when they walk past.

How others run it

Real contests at hospitals, a clinic and a city, and how people voted in each.

Cypress Regional Hospital, Swift Current, 2024

Every department decorated a gingerbread house, and patients and visitors voted for their favourite. Staff organised it to lift morale after the pandemic.

Source

City of Pittsburgh gingerbread competition, 2024

Over 300 entries in categories from children to city departments. Judges picked winners in each category, and anyone could vote online for People’s Choice until 31 December.

Source

Longstreet Clinic, Gainesville, Georgia, 2023

Doors were grouped by office location and ranked by judges. A separate People’s Choice went to the door photo with the most reactions on the clinic’s Facebook page.

Source

Fort Hays State University door rubric

Visual impact, holiday theme, craftsmanship and creativity, each scored 1 to 5, close to the criteria above.

Source

A December plan that works

  1. First week of December

    Announce the contest, the theme and the budget. Two weeks is enough time to decorate.

  2. Mid December

    Photograph every door, desk or gingerbread house on the same day, with the same lights on.

  3. 3 days before the party

    Open the vote for 3 days, so people who work remotely or on shifts still get a say.

  4. At the holiday party

    Show the result on the screen and hand out the prize.

Good for

Where these contests happen

  • Office and cubicle decorating contests
  • Door decorating contests in hospitals and schools
  • Gingerbread house contests
  • Neighborhood Christmas lights contests

How it works

How to run the vote

  1. 1

    Photograph every entry the same way

    Same distance, same light, whole entry in the frame. Six photos fit one poll; with more entries, run one poll per floor or department.

  2. 2

    Close the vote before the party

    Voting runs 24 hours, 3 days or 7 days, so the winner is known when you hand out the prize.

  3. 3

    Post one link where people already are

    Teams, Slack, the staff newsletter, or a printed notice with the QR code by the coffee machine.

  4. 4

    Announce the winner

    Your author page shows the count live. Share the final result in the same channel.

Need more than 6 entries, a results file or your logo? Write to us

Photos that keep the vote fair

  • Shoot every entry from the same distance, straight on.
  • Doors in portrait, desks and rooms in landscape, with the whole design in the frame.
  • Same lights for everyone: all string lights on, or all photos in daylight. One dark photo loses votes it should not.
  • No names or faces needed. A number per entry keeps the vote about the decorations.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

How do we run it across several floors or offices?

One poll per floor or office, up to 6 entries each, then a final poll with the winners. Every poll gets its own link.

Can people vote for their own team?

Yes, the poll does not know who sits where. If that matters, the rules can ask everyone to vote for another team.

What stops one person from voting ten times?

A vote is tied to the browser it came from, so a second vote from the same phone or laptop is refused. It does not check identity: a second device could vote again. For an office contest that is usually enough; for a big prize, add judges too.

Should people see who is winning while they vote?

By default they see the standings only after voting, so an early leader does not pull votes. You can turn on “Show results before voting”.

What do remote colleagues need?

Only the link. It opens in any browser, also inside Teams and Slack, without an account.

Can we put the vote on the break room wall?

Yes. On your author page open “More options”, then “QR code” and “Print a notice”: an A4 page with the photos and a code to scan.