12 Days Of Christmas Display Expands, Includes Student Art Contest

A 12 Days of Christmas-themed display that attracted thousands of visitors to Kids Creek neighborhood last year is expanding, with 20 houses hosting installations that will include holiday movie artwork from eight area schools.

Spruce Street resident Richard Odell, a former president of Interlochen Center for the Arts and The Leelanau School, is spearheading the neighborhood decorating initiative that will stretch the length of Spruce Street between West Front Street and Sixth Street, as well as Sixth Street between Spruce and Division. In 2017, Odell and his neighbors worked for months constructing set pieces for their front yards to represent the 12 Days of Christmas, including milking maids, drummers, swans, leaping lords, gold rings, calling birds, and a partridge in a pear tree. The group obtained permission from the City of Traverse City to decorate trees in the city’s right-of-way – paying out-of-pocket not only for installation materials, but insurance to cover the trees – and drew as many as 10,000 visitors over the two weeks the display was live.

“The response was exceedingly favorable,” Odell says. “We had a number of nights that nursing homes brought busloads of people through. Chartered vehicles for parties came through…Norte came by on bikes. We didn’t have any complaints from anybody, and the city didn’t have any complaints. The only thing people said was, ‘Why didn’t you leave it up longer?’”

Heeding that feedback, Kids Creek residents are adding a full extra week to the display period this year. The neighborhood will officially open the holiday installation this Saturday (December 15) at 5pm, with the displays lit thereafter every night from 5pm to 10pm through January 1. In addition to revamped versions and staging of the 12 Days of Christmas pieces, this year’s installation has been expanded to include eight additional homes that will each feature a 9'x12' painted canvas display depicting a scene from a famous Christmas movie. The displays were painted by students from eight local schools, including Traverse City West, Northport, Suttons Bay, The Leelanau School, Pathfinder School, Traverse City High School, Elk Rapids Middle School, and Elk Rapids High School.

“I wanted to get kids involved in some substantive way,” says Odell, who invited at least a dozen local schools to participate and secured yeses from eight. The partnership will not only allow students to expose their artwork to thousands of community residents, but potentially win cash and prizes for their art programs. Odell has lined up a jury panel of four local artists who will review the holiday paintings this weekend and crown three winners. First place will win $1,000 – which will go “directly to the art department, not the school district,” Odell notes – while second place will receive $500 and third place $250. Schools were randomly assigned a holiday movie and scene from a drawing out of a hat to keep the process fair, and the names of the judges and the schools responsible for each painting will be kept secret until the winners are announced.

The public will also have a chance to weigh in. In addition to the juried prizes, the Kids Creek neighborhood is offering a “people’s choice” award for the most popular student display among visitors. Each of the eight paintings will have a laminated sign in the corner that includes a number the public can use to text and vote for their top choice (similar to the voting system used by shows like American Idol and The Voice). The top vote-getter will be announced January 6 and win a free pizza party for the school’s art department.

In addition to painting the canvas displays, students and staff from several schools are also helping install their artwork in Kids Creek neighborhood this week. On Wednesday, teacher Joe Blondia and students Jack Simermeyer and Maris Cook of The Leelanau School joined Odell and several neighbors in the front yard of a Spruce Street residence to assist with mounting their painting (pictured). “They had a lot of fun with it, taking it from a blank canvas and this idea of what it was supposed to look like…to all the sudden this cool thing we created,” said Blondia, surveying the scene. “We worked on it for two weeks for an hour-and-a-half every day after school and then a little bit during lunches, whenever we could fit it in.”

Cook, a tenth-grade student, said the project was a natural fit for The Leelanau School. “Everyone at the school has a way of incorporating art into classes,” she says. “It’s a very creative and art-based school. I’m really excited (about the display).”

Simermeyer, who’s in eleventh grade, agrees. “It’s a way The Leelanau School is able to involve ourselves in the community in a positive manner,” he said. “It was a really fun experience after a stressful day at school to know we could go to the gym, where we were painting this, and work on it. I’m very happy with how it turned out.”

The students’ experience working on the installations reflects Odell’s vision for the Kids Creek project, which he says has not only helped residents who were formerly strangers meet and become friends, but has inspired a festive and communal attitude among visitors. Whereas many outdoor Christmas installations are primarily experienced by car, the 12 Days of Christmas display has several interactive stops designed to encourage visitors to get out of their vehicles. At least three of the student pieces this year will feature interactive photo opportunities, such as sitting in a Polar Express-themed train car or taking shots with set pieces from Elf and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Odell says many groups last year walked from home to home, caroling or laughing or chatting with other visitors.

“I think in our country today, there’s a lot of division,” Odell says. “We need more things that bring people who may have different opinions together around a common thing, something fun and positive. That was our goal.”