EVERETT – With the Thanksgiving feast reduced to leftovers, the focus is now on the next big thing.
For Everett’s Riverside neighborhood, that event is its annual holiday house-decorating contest.
The neighborhood has long had a decorating contest. But this year, for the first time, Riverside will be part of the annual Everett Transit Holiday Lights Tour.
The popular tour, which runs Dec. 16-19, means busloads of spectators will visit the neighborhood.
“Everett Transit came to us because they knew in the past we had a holiday decorating contest, and that Everett Transit had had to go out of town for tours,” said neighborhood chairwoman M.J. Donovan-Creamer.
There will be prizes from neighborhood businesses for the best decorated house, the best-decorated block and the best theme-oriented house. This year’s theme is “lots and lots of Santa Clauses.”
In the past, some residents have even pitched in to buy decorations for neighbors
“Riverside is a real neighborly place,” Donovan-Creamer said. “We may have all of our troubles and whatever, but we always seem to have time to have fun. This is what the holiday decorating contest is all about.”
She estimates that nearly 50 homes have participated in the past, and perhaps more will “come shining through” now that the neighborhood is on Everett Transit’s tour.
The rest of the tour route is “top secret,” said Steffanie Lillie, Everett Transit community outreach specialist, until people’s decorations are up and tour organizers can map out a route.
On tour nights, buses depart at 7 p.m. from the Great Hall at Everett Station, 3201 Smith Ave. There will be music for holiday mingling 30 minutes before the buses leave.
Tickets are on sale now at the Everett Transit customer service window and must be purchased in advance. The tour costs $5 per person and two nonperishable food items to be donated on the day of the tour.
For more information, call 425-257-7777.
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@heraldnet.com.
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