As shoppers return to Bury St Edmunds town centre, they are greeted by sparkling festive windows.
The town’s Christmas lights have been switched on, the trees are in place and businesses are also getting into the seasonal spirit by taking part in the annual best-dressed Christmas window competition.
MORE: GALLERY: Christmas has begun in Bury St EdmundsMembers of the public are invited to help judge the contest, which is run by the Our Bury St Edmunds Business Improvement District (BID) group.
For the first time, the competition is being run digitally, with participating windows listed as a trail on the LoyalFree app to make it easy for them all to be viewed.
People can also vote through the app, and those who do will be eligible for a prize draw to win one of three Our Bury St Edmunds gift cards that can be spent in around 50 different town centre businesses.
Mike Kirkham, from the BID, said: “In the past we have invited a different independent judge to choose a winner and every year without fail they have told us how difficult a task they have found it.
MORE: Cathedral Christmas tree features ‘messages of hope’ in difficult year“Some have put in a huge amount of time, taking photographs, drawing up shortlists and making several trips into town to finally pick a winner. With a trail and digital competition on the app we hope those who vote, whether they know and love Bury St Edmunds or are visiting for the first time, will find it a lot easier.”
The winning business will be presented with the Our Bury St Edmunds shield to hold for a year.
Some of the windows in contention for the award were recently featured in the Bury Merry Christmas video advertising the town centre that was made instead of a Christmas lights switch-on event this year.
The film was viewed 100,000 times in the space of 48 hours following its premiere by Our Bury St Edmunds on St Edmund’s Day.
MORE: ‘Lovely’ goodwill gestures from children placed on town’s Christmas treeMr Kirkham, who is the BID’s business support and marketing officer, added: “The pandemic has presented many challenges for the town centre this year, not least the most recent lockdown.
“But the effort that has gone into festive window dressing by businesses despite everything, is absolutely fantastic. We hope that people who come to look and vote for their favourite window will do some of their Christmas shopping at the same time.”
The app is free to download and voting in the competition is also free.
Voting closes on Sunday, December 13. The Our Bury St Edmunds shield will be presented to the winner in the following week
•To download the LoyalFree app go to the Our Bury St Edmunds website here.
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