How to Win the Bourbonnais Holiday Homes & Holly Jolly Lighting Contest

Every December, the Village of Bourbonnais turns holiday decorating into a competition. The Holiday Homes & Holly Jolly Lighting Contest is free for village residents, and the stakes are bigger than bragging rights. In one recent year, the People's Choice voting pulled 8,000 votes on Facebook and the online map of entries drew more than 15,000 views. Win this contest and your house becomes a destination for half of Kankakee County.

Green Pro Services installs Christmas lights on rooflines across Bourbonnais, from Bordeaux Estates to Turnberry to the neighborhoods off Main Street. We see what separates the displays people drive past from the displays people drive to. This guide breaks the contest down into seven steps you can start on today.

Step 1: Register Before the Deadline

No registration, no trophy. The contest has closed registration in late November in past years, with forms available at the Village Administration Building at 600 Main St NW and online. The best display in Bourbonnais loses to an average one if it never makes the entry map. Put the deadline on your calendar in October and register the moment the window opens.

Step 2: Pick Your Category and Build for It

Past contests have crowned winners in two categories, and each one rewards a different display.

Traditional rewards execution. Clean lines, even spacing, balanced design, and a display that looks intentional from the curb. Judges in this category notice the details a casual viewer misses: a peak that stops short, a sagging strand, two shades of warm white on the same gutter line.

People's Choice rewards attention. This category is decided by public Facebook voting, so the winning display photographs well at night and comes attached to a homeowner willing to campaign for votes. Bold color, animated elements, and a strong front-facing composition matter more here than technical perfection.

You can compete in both. But knowing which prize you want changes every design decision that follows.

Step 3: Design the Roofline First

The roofline is the skeleton of every winning display. Judges and voters read it before anything else because it defines the shape of the house at night.

Step 4: One Color Plan, Commercial-Grade Lights

Mixed color temperatures are the most common flaw we see on DIY displays. Three boxes of "warm white" from three different store runs produce three different whites, and the mismatch shows from the street. Pick one plan and hold it: classic warm white, red and green, or a multicolor scheme with consistent bulbs throughout.

Commercial-grade LED lights hold their color and brightness across the full display, survive Illinois wind and ice, and keep a dead bulb from killing a whole section. Our all-inclusive installation packages include the lights, so you never buy or store a single strand.

Step 5: Build Depth Beyond the Roofline

Contest winners layer their displays. The roofline draws the eye up. Wreaths and garland pull it to the entry. Wrapped trees and lit shrubs fill the yard. Walkway accents finish the frame at ground level. Each layer gives viewers a reason to slow down, and slowing down is how a drive-by turns into a vote.

Depth matters even more for People's Choice, because a layered display photographs with dimension. A single roofline strand looks thin in a Facebook photo. A full composition fills the frame.

Step 6: Set Timers and Never Go Dark

The village publishes an online map of every entry, and viewers drive the routes on their own schedule throughout December. You never know which night your judges show up. A tripped GFCI or a forgotten plug on the wrong night takes you out of the running no matter how strong the design is.

Set automatic timers so the display runs from dusk through the evening, every night, through Christmas. Then check it from the street a few times a week. Wind moves strands. Bulbs fail. Winning displays get maintained, and this is one place professional installation earns its keep: when Green Pro Services installs your display, we handle maintenance calls all season so a dark section never costs you the contest.

Step 7: Campaign for People's Choice Votes

People's Choice is a popularity contest by design, and 8,000 votes have been cast in a single year. Treat it like a campaign:

Shoot one strong photo at dusk, when there is still blue in the sky and the lights read bright without the house going black. Post it to your own page and share it in Bourbonnais and Kankakee County community groups. Ask neighbors, coworkers, your church, and your kids' teams to vote while the polls are open. Include your address so voters can find you on the village map and see the display in person. Votes follow visibility, and visibility is something you control.

Why Bourbonnais Homeowners Hire a Pro for Contest Season

The gap between a good display and a winning display lives in details that take experience to execute: cut-to-fit roofline runs, matched color temperature, clean power management, and a crew with OSHA ladder safety certification working steep November rooflines so you never climb one in the cold.

Green Pro Services brings a decade of Christmas light installation experience to Bourbonnais, built through years of professional holiday lighting work before we brought the trade home to Kankakee County. Homeowners can read our reviews and see recent installs at our Google Business Profile: Christmas Light Installation Company in Bourbonnais.

Start with our Bourbonnais Christmas light installation page, browse the full Christmas light installation service, or explore permanent Christmas lighting if you want a display you control from your phone year after year.