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Holiday contests are always a hit and this house decorating photo contest from WPRO-FM (Riverside, RI) fits the bill as well. The Christmas lights surrounding the contest is a nice touch, as well as the outline of the contest in the side panel. The highest vote-receiving submission is awarded a $500 gift certificate to Christmas Decor by Seascape and $1,000 cash form Lite Rock 105 – what great prizes!

Email marketing around a contest plays an integral role in the success of the contest. Virginia Living (Richmond, VA) does a fantastic job marketing their festive holiday contest with short, sweet emails to their database. By entering a photo of their tree, readers can win a gift card to a local restaurant and 4 tickets to the Richmond Ballet’s Giselle performance. Great job – the tree logo is beautiful!

The “scared of santa” contest is always a big hit around the holiday season and this one from KTLA-TV (Los Angeles, CA) is no exception. The photos this type of contest brings are always fun to browse through (not fun for the kids, obviously). What makes this “scared of santa” stand out, you ask? The $2,500 cash prize and fantastic branding!

WPRO-FM (Riverside, RI) sure knows how to celebrate the holiday season with its listeners – by offering them the chance to win a $10,000 shopping spree! Each hopeful shopper enters the big giveaway to get the chance to “shop like a popstar” – the contest is up to nearly 1,500 entries (and counting!). Another great feature of the contest is the personalization of the entries with a photo and favorite store list.

The Oakland Press (Southgate, MI) celebrates a wonderful holiday with this photo contest – grandparents’ day! What an adorable way to celebrate a fantastic group of people – the $100 cash prize isn’t bad either!

Just because of this kids-holiday-coloring contest from Norfolk Daily News (Norfolk, NE), I may skip turkey this year at Thanksgiving. The paper published a plain Gary the Turkey and encouraged kids of all ages to disguise him to save him from the troubles of November (for turkeys, anyway). Between jailbird Gary, Santa Gary and The Hangover Gary, I can’t decide my favorite. Great holiday contest!