Kim and Lance Cochran's daughter Ally wanted to set up her own Christmas tree in the basement.

So the intrepid 8-year-old devised a scheme to gather money to buy her own tree -- win first prize in the Salina Journal's Holiday Lights Contest.

This year, for the first time, the public was allowed to nominate and vote on the best Christmas light displays in Saline County. First prize was a $250 gift certificate from Stutzmans Greenhouse and Garden Center in Salina.

That would be plenty of money for the tree Ally wanted. So Ally told a neighbor about her plans, and the neighbor said he'd call the Journal and nominate her family's home, a ranch-style home at 763 Victoria Heights Terrace. It's decorated with an array of white bulbs.

Two hundred and fifteen votes later, Ally will be able to buy her ideal tree. The Cochran house won first place in the contest, which ran Dec. 5 through 15.

Ally might have gotten her tree anyway, but she wanted to win it and choose her own lights to decorate it, said mom Kim Cochran.

"She made a decision as an 8-year-old to enter the contest," said Kim, who works at St. Mary's Grade School. "I didn't honestly think we would win."

Second place went to Shawn M. Hynes, 928 E. Ash, and third place to Greg and Geneann Gordon, 2330 Hillside. Hynes won a $100 gift certificate from Pettle's Flowers, and the Gordons won a $50 gift certificate from Sutherlands Building Materials.

Decorating their homes each Christmas with strings of lights and other holiday displays is an annual family affair for all the winners.

The Cochrans have two other young children, ages 10 and 4, and all three like to participate in the decorating process.

"The kids help unwrap the lights, I climb up as far as I can, and then my husband gets on the roof and finishes it up," Kim Cochran said. "We turn Christmas music on and make it a family activity."

The Cochrans have hung white bulbs on their house, and those are reflected by metal blinds in their front windows to give the lights a shimmering look. Additionally, lights placed over the front door roofline are reflected in glass panels above the door to create an illusion that lights also are emanating from inside the house.

The family also decorates an adjacent tree and shrubs in white lights and places on the lawn a big wooden bear, complete with Santa hat and wreath.

Kim Cochran said she and her husband like to keep their decorations "simple and elegant" on the outside.

"There are luminaries that go all around the neighborhood on Victoria Heights every year, and they're always simple and elegant," she said. "A lot of people drive through during the Christmas season to look at the luminaries, so we wanted to be in that tradition with our lights."

That's not to say Ally won't choose a little flash for her new downstairs tree, her mother said.

"She might put up some colored lights," she said.

Just wait till next year

Hynes' home at 928 E. Ash was in first place until the last couple of days of the contest when he was overtaken by the Cochrans.

The second-place winner said he's planning to go "above and beyond" in decorating for 2010, "so we can get first place next year."

As it is, Hynes puts about eight or nine strands of about 25 lights each along the trim of his house, a huge lighted star on his roof, and red bows and loops of garland on a white picket fence in front of the house.

Three of his five sons, ages 11, 7 and 5, help string up the lights while the small boys, ages 3 and 1Ôªø1âÑ2, mostly watch.

"I'm the one who gets on the roof," Hynes said. "When they get older, I can send them on the roof while I sit there and watch them."

Hynes, who owns his own painting business, said he looks forward to decorating his house for Christmas each year.

"We get a lot of compliments," he said.

A challenge he enjoys

A third-place winners' Greg and Geneann Gordon's home at 2330 Hillside, it's Greg Gordon who is in charge of putting up outside Christmas decorations -- and that's the way his wife prefers it.

"I decorate on the inside, but the outside is totally my husband's," Geneann Gordon said. "I think he does a pretty good job of it.

He's a jack of all trades. You name it, he can do it."

Each year, Greg Gordon pulls out his extension ladder and puts up about 28 strings of white icicle lighting along the trim of the two-story house and railing of the porch. The couple also install a number of lighted deer figures, some of which have moving heads and bodies.

Geneann said her oldest son, Sean, who lives in Topeka, always thought his father went overboard in his decorating -- until Greg won a prize this year.

"This year, our prize is dedicated to him," she said.

Greg, a department supervisor at Exide Technologies, said putting up lights each Christmas is a challenge he looks forward to.

"It takes me about three days to do all the connections and figure out the timers," he said. "I really enjoy it."

nReporter Gary Demuth can be reached at 822-1405 or by e-mail at gdemuth@salina.com.

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says....
no your the one with no christmas spirit if your hating on a christmas light competition.. but anyway if your checkin out lights go to house next to pizzahut on santa fe
12/22/2009

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Seriously says....
Wow you can't even win a contest in this town without someone having to complain.
Way to go Ally! Enjoy your tree you deserve it!
12/20/2009

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curious voter says....
Did anyone ever hear the final vote counts? How close or unclose was this competition??
12/20/2009

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says....
I think the nice thing for them to do would have been donate to someone less fortunate than them that couldn't afford to have a tree this year. So much for Christmas Spirit.
12/20/2009

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