'Tis the Season

One night last week I arrived home from work to find a note taped to my door. My building's management occasionally leaves notes on residents' doors to let them know about forthcoming property inspections or maintenance issues that may have arisen or are expected to arise. This week's notice was more festive in nature.

The announcement was made to let us all know that there would be a door decorating contest in the month of December. The doors will be judged by the residents, which means that I'll probably find a ballot of some kind taped to my door in the next week or so. The motivation for decorating the door? The prize.

There's nothing in the notice stating exactly what the prize will be. It only ends by saying that there WILL be a prize for the winner. And then it adds on some exclamation points. I'll save you from all that excitement. I'm trying to keep the blog low key today. I think I'm coming down with a cold or something. I really don't want to overdo it.

So I spent a great deal of time yesterday decorating my door. It isn't anything really elaborate. The decorations aren't incredibly fancy. Putting it together was a little time-consuming, but I was working on a very small budget. I went out and bought some fairly inexpensive wrapping paper and covered the door with it. For a long time, this was all I did to the door yesterday. But that's because I had to come into the apartment to work on the rest of the things that would go on the door.

Here's the creative part. I got a bunch of construction paper and I cut out a bunch of gift boxes out of the paper. One color paper for the box, another color for the ribbon. I glued them together and they look pretty good. I dare any preschooler to do a better job during their arts and crafts time.

Next, I cut out letters from the green construction paper. I figured that would look good on the cheap, red wrapping paper. The letters spell out "Share your Christmas wish" or possibly "Harshy horsecar swimsuit." Memo to self: make sure I put the letters in the right order after finishing this post.

Anyway, the idea is to make my decorative door interactive. I attached a Sharpie and some Scotch tape to the door along with the construction paper presents. And now, anyone who comes by my door and is moved by the Ghost of Christmas Present can leave a note saying what the want for Christmas. I tried to prime the pump by leaving my own wish on the door. A new job.

To add a little extra flair I taped up some snowflake ornaments that I found at Target. Four for a dollar wasn't too shabby. And I found a string of lights in my storage closet that I'm surprised still work. They don't stretch all the way around the door, but hit a good 75% of it. Okay, it looks a little ghetto, but who am I trying to impress? Thus far, mine is the only door I've seen that's decorated. Though, to be honest, I haven't walked the halls on the third or first floor, and really I only pass the doors that lead to my apartment anyway. So maybe someone on the other half of the second floor has done something.

But if I don't win, it isn't a big deal. I mean, the prize could be anything. I don't think it'll be a new car or an iPod. It'll probably be a gift card. Or a really big stick. Either way, I'm interested to see if any of my neighbors will be interactive with the door. Somehow I doubt it, but we'll see. So if you're feeling that Christmas spirit, come on by 215 and write something on my door.