All dressed up for Christmas
Winners of Thatcham’s best dressed windows
THE people of Thatcham have voted House of Cards as their best dressed Christmas window, in a festive competition run by Thatcham Town Council and the Newbury Weekly News.
The award was presented by Thatcham mayor John Boyd along with Newbury Weekly News editor Andy Murrill on Monday.
The company played its cards right with its creative Christmas idea of decorating a window with an interactive display.
The card shop received 373 votes, with Esteem Domestic Appliances following in second (358) and Envy Hairdressing coming in third (215).
Customers could enjoy the festive design, but also had the challenge of matching the Christmas films incorporated in the design to mystery movie quotes on display.
Store manager Sian Faulkner said it was an opportunity for everyone to get creative and get involved.
“It’s nice to get involved with the community and represent the company,” she said.
“It was a team thing; I try and get everyone involved, it is nice for us to work together.”
Winning was a “bonus” as the interactive design was a part of the company’s own competition.
“We wanted something to interact with our customers, so we have got quotes from films and they have to match them up.
“It was just a lot of fun, but as we have done quite well, it’s a pleasant surprise really.
“We would love to get involved in everything next year – it’s that community feel and to put ourselves out there.”
Mr Boyd said: “It’s nice to see that they have done a spread across two windows.
“It was so good to see how many windows made the effort.”
He said it was interesting to see how the results differed from the mayor’s winners awarded at the Thatcham lights switch-on, on December 3.
He said: “It is important for the public to have their say. It’s also nice for them to get out and about, it was so good to see so many people get involved.
“It’s always subjective; what looks good to one, is different for another”.
In the mayor’s choice, South African store SA Zim came out on top, with Envy Hairdressers in second place for its Grinch-themed window.
Mr Boyd and deputy mayor Jeff Brooks judged the windows on the night of the lights switch-on and said that it was important to ensure the winners’ windows reflected the theme of Christmas movies.
Paul Rock from SA Zim said it felt “amazing” to be selected by the mayor for the best window at the first time of entering.
He said how it was good to be a part of the community and to be involved with the Broadway.
He said: “Some of the displays were amazing. We went for the family community sort of look.
“It was tricky to keep it as an African shop. There are a lot of animals in the window, we had a Madagascar Christmassy look and incorporated a lot of our animals.
“Our plan was to get kids and families to stop by and enjoy it.
“It was about getting kids to love seeing the animals, get them pointing at the birds and giraffes.”