Window decorating contest spreads holiday cheer in Laguna Beach
With the coronavirus pandemic, people have had little to celebrate like they will the end of 2020.
The result is a holiday season in which gathering is discouraged, and yet there are visuals that show how holiday cheer cannot be stifled.
The Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce held a window decorating contest, challenging participants to get creative with their designs and compete for the chance to have their business promoted.
KRISTALLE (875 N. Pacific Coast Hwy), a local business that specializes in selling minerals and various natural history specimens, won the contest with a humorous take on the year at hand.
The window decorations included a tower of bath tissue with ribbon and ornaments. The words ‘Lets Flush 2020’ are prominently displayed, and a T-Rex dinosaur also has a roll held in its teeth.
Wayne and Dona Leicht opened the shop in Laguna Beach in 1971, so the turn of the calendar is cause for celebration as it will mark the 50th anniversary for the local business, which has clients around the world.
Dona was not immediately sure what kind of reaction the decorations would draw when they were being put together.
“We’ve got to find some humor in this somewhere along the way,” Dona said. “I thought, as soon as I had this brilliant idea and I executed it with the help of my assistant, I said, ‘Oh God, we’re going to get a blowback from this. People are going to think that’s insane.’”
To her surprise, Dona said people began showing up to the shop to take selfies in front of the window, something that might have been expected if there were more walking traffic, as there was at the shop’s prior location as part of the Forest Avenue mall.
Dona laughs when thinking about how people from Laguna Beach might travel abroad and come across a mineral store, only to be asked by the staff there if they know KRISTALLE and the Leichts back home.
“We don’t sell anything that anybody needs,” Dona said. “Our reputation around the world, well, it’s world famous, but we’re like the best-kept secret in Laguna.”
For winning the contest, KRISTALLE will get an advertising package valued at $1,400. Sandy Morales, the new president of the Laguna Beach Chamber of Commerce, said that the idea for the first-time contest was brought forth by Paula Hornbuckle-Arnold, who stepped down as CEO of the Chamber on Dec. 14.
The Laguna Beach Historical Society (278 Ocean Ave.) and AREO (207 Ocean Ave.) were also selected from the group of 17 contest entries as people’s choice winners and will receive one month of free advertising from KX FM 104.7, a Laguna Beach-based radio station.
“I felt like it brought the Christmas spirit back during this difficult year, which is really so needed at this time,” Morales said. “Just walking downtown and seeing the decorations, you kind of forget all of the doom and gloom.”
For the Laguna Beach Historical Society, which has had its doors shut since the initial coronavirus shutdowns in March, the free advertising can provide a boost. Johanna Ellis, a board member, believes that it can help get the historical society’s name out and secure memberships. A long-term goal for the group is to establish a permanent archive, Ellis added.
Ellis envisioned a gingerbread house when she heard the Laguna Beach Historical Society was entering the holiday window decorating contest. The building was decorated with Christmas lights, candy canes and peppermints.
“I think it’s adorable,” Ellis said. “That brought our board together because we haven’t been able to do any programs, and we were getting a little bit sad about the fact that we couldn’t continue with some of the programs that we wanted. That did actually bring up the morale of the board members.”
AREO draped icicle-like lights over the front of its store.
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