The competition was fierce and the vote count was tight, but the winners of Myrtle's first Holiday Windows Contest have been chosen by you, the public, via text message voting. Given how close the contest was, and given how many enthusiastic and talented artists participated, we added second and third place monetary prizes, while honorable mentions went to those Storefront Windows that had particularly strong support via emails, calls, and comments to our staff.

The artist(s) winning first place receives gift certificates valued at $250 to participating Myrtle Avenue businesses, while the second and third place winners receive gift certificates valued at $100 and $50 respectively.

1st Place: Benjie Sirota and Julia Wadsworth for their work at Zaytoons
2nd Place: Leola Bermanzohn for her work at (burzh-wa)
3rd Place: Suzanna Shapiro for her work at Gnarly Vines

And the Honorable Mentions go to:

The Bright Idea Award, for most innovative use of holiday lights, goes to artist Kelly Horrigan and Sara Weissler for their work at Karens Body Beautiful.

The Snowblower Award, for most creative interpretation of the theme of the business (in this case, using hair as snow), goes to artist Alecs Gryczon for her work at Joseph Tyler Salon.

The Santa's Workshop Award, for most innovative use of outside materials to create multi-dimensional scenes, goes to Cecilia Rebecca Ziko, Matt Brennan and Melissa Rioux for their work at The Bakery (pictured above) and Kapellas.

The Yes We Can Award, for creatively incorporating current events into an inspirational holiday theme, goes to Kathleen Hayek for her work at Fort Greene SNAP.

Many thanks to all of the merchants, artists, and voters who participated in this year's Holiday Windows Contest. We hope everyone enjoyed the window art as much as we did, and got in the holiday shopping mood while walking down Myrtle Avenue.