Cromwell's Brightest Addresses Revealed: Light Up Your Letterbox Winners Announced
- 7 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 days ago
The countdown to the 10th Light Up Winter Cromwell celebration became even brighter this year with the launch of a brand-new community initiative, the Light Up Your Letterbox competition.
Proudly brought to the community by Cromwell & Districts Promotion Group, the competition invited households across Cromwell and the surrounding districts to transform their letterboxes into glowing winter creations and help make our district "New Zealand's Brightest Address!"
Designed as a fun way to extend the magic of Light Up Winter beyond event night, the initiative encouraged locals to get creative, share their winter spirit, and showcase the pride people have in their homes and neighbourhoods.
A fantastic collaboration with CentralApp helped bring the idea to life, managing entries and creating an interactive trail map so locals and visitors could explore the participating displays.
Rather than simply viewing entries online, people were encouraged to rug up, get outdoors and discover Cromwell & Districts throughout winter, visiting the glowing creations, enjoying the neighbourhood displays, and voting for their favourites.
The response was fantastic, with households embracing the challenge and adding an extra sparkle to streets across the district.
In the end, it was French Canadian, now proud local, Roxane Deschênes' delightful Christmas-themed canine that was crowned Top Dog, taking out the inaugural Light Up Your Letterbox title. Roxane and her family embraced the community spirit of the competition and created a display that had voters wagging their tails with delight.
Snapping at the winner's heels in a very close second was nearly seven-year-old Billie Atkins, whose magical mermaid-themed letterbox captured hearts across the district and proved that creativity knows no age.
Rounding out the top three was Julie Morton, well known throughout the community for her incredible creativity and multiple Light Up Your Hat competition wins. Julie once again wowed voters with a stunning floral extravaganza that brought colour, imagination and plenty of winter cheer.
After a month of glowing displays and plenty of votes, our inaugural Light Up Your Letterbox competition winners:
🥇1st Place – Roxane Deschênes (18 Wallis Drive) $500 FreshChoice Cromwell voucher
🥈2nd Place – Billie Atkins (39A Olds Crescent) $250 The Tarras Village Store voucher
🥉 3rd Place – Julie Morton (8 Blyth Street) $150 Bannockburn Hotel voucher
Congratulations to Roxane, Billie and Julie, and a huge thank you to every household that took part. Your creativity, enthusiasm and community spirit helped create a wonderful new winter tradition and gave locals and visitors another reason to explore Cromwell & Districts.
A special thank you to Aurora Energy for proudly sponsoring this exciting new initiative, and to our generous prize partners FreshChoice Cromwell, The Tarras Village Store, and Bannockburn Hotel for providing three fantastic prizes.
We'd also like to thank CentralApp for helping bring this competition to life through its interactive trail map, encouraging people to get out, explore the district, and discover the wonderful displays along the way.
Light Up Your Letterbox is a wonderful example of what can happen when local organisations come together with creativity, technology and collaboration to create new ways for people to connect with our community.
Thank you to everyone who entered, explored the trail, admired the displays and cast their votes. Together, you've helped create what we hope will become another much-loved Light Up Winter tradition.
