A reindeer tangled in Christmas lights by Special Education teacher, Jennifer Dalrymple, won first place in the holiday door decoration contest.

Teachers around the school decorated their doors for the festive season under the theme “Holiday Magic” for the PSE-sponsored project.

“I thought it was fun, I thought it was a fun idea,” Charlie-Brown-Christmas-tree decorator, and second place winner, Deanne Arnote, said. “I think it’s fun to show spirit in the building and it kind of builds comradery. The PSE, they do a lot to bring the unity within the building so I think it’s a great idea.”

Visual impact, craftsmanship, completeness, creativity and originality were the guidelines for each door and the products ranged from winter scene to real life Charlie Brown trees to Minions in Santa hats.

“It was fun to look the stuff up and get ideas,” Elements-tree decorator, and third place winner, Debbie Kapaun, said. “That’s the fun part; trying to come up with a good idea and a clever idea, pertaining to my subject matter too. That’s what I was looking for.”

Pinterest turned out to be a very popular idea site for the teachers who participated and with the help of their students, they made their ‘pins’ into real life magical masterpieces.

“It was pretty funny because I figured it would be a quick activity for the kids to make a snowflake-they don’t remember how to do it. It was something that I took for granted but they couldn’t remember so I had to show them actually how to,” PSE judge Mrs. Washer said. “People thought the snowflakes were interesting, comparing. What I found really neat about it is knowing the kids, and some of these kids I’ve worked with for two or three years, knowing each student and seeing their personality actually in their snowflake.”

By the end of the day on Dec. 16, 13 doors had been decorated and the prizes for first place (2 free Chipotle meals), second place ($10 Baskin Robbins gift card) and third place ($5 Quiktrip gift card) had been handed out.

“The door contest was fun!” Dalrymple said. “It’s always good to participate in a North activity! I enjoyed everyone’s decorated doors and hope that others enjoyed mine!”