Holiday lights contest voting with QR yard signs
The town contests I looked at run the same way: every house that enters gets a sign in the yard, the sign has a QR code, and neighbors who drive or walk past scan it and vote on their phone. This page walks through that setup for a street or an HOA, with dates, an 18-house example and the list of things to print.
Start a lights contest See a sample
How towns run it
- Monroe, Michigan (2025): "Each participating home has a sign with a QR code that you can scan to cast your vote." Public voting ran December 15 to 28, and at most one vote per day is counted for each participant. Winners were announced on December 29.
- Blackstone Metro District (2022): a link and a QR code on a flyer, voting through December 23, winners on December 28, and each member of a household, adults and kids, may vote.
- Tamarac, Florida (2024): entries until December 18, voting on the city website from December 19 to 25, and the three homes with the most votes win.
- Portsmouth, New Hampshire (2021): registration from November 16 to December 10, judging from December 11 to 19, three categories including a Kids' Choice, and the winners announced by name, not address.
So a lights contest usually means sign-ups from mid-November into December, one to two weeks of voting, and winners announced between the week before Christmas and the end of December.
Timeline for December 2026
My suggested dates. The voting window covers two weekends, when most people drive around to look at lights.
| When | Step | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 16 – Dec 4 | Sign-ups | Houses tell the organizer they're in, by email or on the HOA board. Keep the addresses on your own list. |
| Sat, Dec 5 | Create the contest and print | One entry per house, in the order of a walk or drive through the neighborhood. Print one sign per entry from the host page. |
| Dec 6 – 10 | Deliver signs | Drop each sign at its house. Residents put it near the sidewalk where the display lights it. |
| Fri, Dec 11 – Sun, Dec 20 | Voting | Post the vote link in the neighborhood group on the first evening. Lights on each evening, say 5 to 10 p.m. |
| Mon, Dec 21 | Close and announce | Close voting on the host page. The winners per award show on the results page; share that link. |
| By Jan 4 | Contest is deleted | Contests are deleted 30 days after they're made. Write the winners into the newsletter before then. |
Because of the 30-day limit, create the contest after sign-ups close, not when you announce the contest in November.
Worked example: 18 houses, 4 awards
An HOA with three streets. Eighteen houses sign up: 8 on Maple St, 6 on Oak Ct, 4 on Birch Ln.
- Entries. Type them in route order: "House 1, Maple St" through "House 8, Maple St", then "House 9, Oak Ct" and so on to "House 18, Birch Ln". The number on the sign is the entry number, so a driver who follows the route sees 1, 2, 3 in order. Leave out house numbers and family names: the labels show on the results page.
- Awards. Best overall, Most creative, Best theme and Kids' pick. A neighbor opens the vote page and picks one house for each award, or "No pick" for an award they can't decide.
- Signs. The host page prints 18 pages, one per house. Each QR code opens the vote page with a note that names that house's entry number, so neighbors know which sign they scanned.
- Kids' pick. One phone sends one ballot, so when a family votes on one phone, let the kids choose the Kids' pick on that ballot. Portsmouth went further and had school-aged children from neighborhood families do the judging.
- Results. Each award goes to the house with the most picks. Houses tied on picks share the award. One house can win more than one award; if you'd rather spread them out, say before voting starts that a house keeps only its top award and the next house moves up.
A contest holds up to 20 entries and 300 ballots. For a bigger neighborhood, run one contest per street or section and let the section winners meet in a final round.
What to print
- One sign per house. Letter or A4, a big entry number, "Scan to vote" and the QR code. 18 houses means 18 pages.
- A sheet protector and a stake for each sign. Slide the page in with the open edge down so rain runs off, and clip it to a wire sign frame or a garden stake.
- One general sign for the entrance. The host page also prints a single "Scan to vote" sign. Put it at the neighborhood entrance or the mailbox cluster, so people know to look for the numbered signs.
- Your own list of addresses. House number, street and entry number, on paper. The app doesn't need addresses, so they stay off the vote page.
Scanning at night
A phone camera needs some light on the code. Ask residents to put the sign where the display or a porch light reaches it, facing the street, at about knee height or higher. A driver shouldn't scan while driving: a passenger scans, or the family parks and walks the street. A strong light right behind the sign can wash out the code, so test one sign on the first evening.
One vote per day?
Monroe counts at most one vote per day for each participant. That needs a way to tell people apart, and this app has no accounts. It takes one ballot per phone visit and shows a note on a phone that already voted, but someone who comes back on another evening can vote again. For a street or HOA contest I'd ask for one ballot per person and treat the result as a friendly neighbors' pick. Several phones on one family's Wi-Fi can all vote, so a household can vote together from the driveway.
How the phone vote works
Type the entries in the order of their numbers. Guests open one link, see Entry 1, Entry 2 and so on, and rate each from 1 to 5. Or, if you pick award voting when you create it, they choose one entry per award, such as Funniest. The results appear with the names when you close voting. A paper sheet suits a judging panel, and the link suits a people's choice vote.
You print a table card with the QR code. Free, no account for you or your guests, deleted after 30 days.
Start a lights contest. The title, three example houses and the four awards above are filled in; replace the houses with yours, then print the signs from the host page.
Create a scorecard See a sample contest