As the new school year rolled around, so did the long-awaited holiday door contest at Cardozo High School. Many readers are probably wondering—what is Cardozo’s holiday door decorating contest?
Well, it’s that time where students and their favorite teachers can decorate their classroom doors to their liking—no matter what the theme is (as long as it’s appropriate and holiday themed). This holiday season has been really fun to see all the doors unravel and recognize the uniqueness of all them. But, this isn’t a friendly contest, as staff and students do get a few weeks to decorate your door. Many people get very competitive over the contest.
The contest winner can win a variety of prizes over the years. This year, in 2023, the winning teacher won a bagel party, sponsored by the school leadership team who hosted the contest.
The rules of the holiday door decorating contest are quite simple:
- One door to each teacher, meaning if a teacher has two classrooms, they can only decorate one.
- The theme has to revolve around the holidays, no matter what holiday or culture.
- The most important rule is to have fun!
Many teachers tried hard this year, putting their all into their doors, making the competition stiff. But, the winners of his year’s door contest was Ms. Skulikidis and Ms. Steel with their Nutcracker door. They happen to be the reigning champions from last year, as well.
Both of these teachers were working really hard towards this year and were very involved in this process. We’ve been planning from the summer trying to brainstorm ideas, we had also taken feedback from our door last year and applied it to this year’s door,” the teacher team shared.
A lot of the kids that were involved were just excited to be a part of this project because, although they may not celebrate the upcoming holidays, it’s still fun to be in the spirit of giving. They also made sure that they weren’t using up teaching time to create the door, so the whole process was done during break time or even early in the morning when kids came in to help.
Like any plan, there were some challenges with the contest, but the teachers said that they strived to overcome time restraints and other challenges. Some of the other teachers who took part in the contest shared that the biggest challenge was “keeping their doors in good shape.” As Cardozo has thousands of students and staff who walk the halls, it’s easy for their decorations to get ripped down or ruined.
One student who had helped create a teacher’s door stated, “We took all the days from the moment the contest started to the Friday that doors were submitted and closed for voting.” As this is a timely process, all the doors that were placed in the ballot had their own unique design and purpose. Although they didn’t win, the time taken to create it mattered most.
Happy holidays to everyone at Cardozo, and we can’t wait to see what awaits us next year!
