I really miss the excitement of last month's Presidential election.  I should be doing a story about Christmas, but I really want to cover a story about people casting their votes.  Maybe I can do both!

I came to North East where the public is being asked to vote on their favorite Christmas window display. The organization called Enjoy North East has asked local businesses to decorate their front windows with a Christmas theme. Some businesses had always decorated for Christmas, but this year many more are involved. This year it's a window decorating contest with cash prizes being awarded to the top three vote getters.

"It makes me happy when you do something and you want to make sure people are excited about it as well. So, I'm glad to see all the participation,” says Jennifer Smith, the director of Enjoy North East.

Jennifer is giving me a tour of the storefront windows. She is showing me a wonderful winter forest scene at the Beauty or Beast Hair Salon.  Trees covered with snow.  There's elves at the Apple Basket, and a snow globe at the North East Historical Society. The Refoundry is a place where 20 vendors sell their antiques. The window theme here is "A Few Of My Favorite Things." Janet Rose Wojtalik is one of the vendors.

"Oh, we want to win,” she says. “We're a very competitive group. We've been telling everyone to vote."

There's 21 windows on the ballot. The owner of The Bean Coffee Shop had her kids help with her window. The bike shop has a bicycle snowman in their window. The pizza shop has a pizza slice painted on their window with a Santa hat. The Dragon Fly Sweet Shop has a Grinch theme. The Flower Cart has beautiful trees decorated as Santa and Frosty. The Skunk and Goat Restaurant has a skunk and goat beside a holiday fireplace. By the way, voter turnout has been outstanding for this spirited contest. Over 20,000 people have cast their votes online. The paper ballots have not yet been counted. Enjoy North East is inviting everyone to come to town, view all the windows, stop inside the businesses, and vote!!!

"And I think it's doing exactly what we want it to do which is welcoming people and giving them yet another reason to come here and meet our locally owned and really unique shops,” says Jennifer.

The contest began in late November and will run through Sunday, December 22. I can't wait to find out the winners!

I visited North East in the daytime but the displays look even more spectacular at night. You can vote online by going to the Enjoy North East web site or you can vote in person at the participating businesses. The winners are expected top be announced on Monday, December 23.