Using the World Wide Web to Throw Light on Holiday Decorating
To dramatize the growth of home holiday lighting into a national decorating frenzy, Homestore.com Inc. is sponsoring its first online home-decorating contest.
The company’s “Electric Avenue Holiday Lights” contest was launched on its Web site, https://www.homestore.com, last week and runs through Dec. 25, with judging to take place immediately after the New Year. A national winner gets a weekend in Las Vegas. Other prizes include free electricity for a year, 25,000 holiday lights and home automation gadgets.
“Home is the ultimate means of self-expression and nowhere do we find it more brilliantly demonstrated than during the holiday season,” said Jeff Charney, vice president of marketing for Homestore.com. “We hope this will strike a chord with the entire country.”
Entries will be posted on the Electric Avenue gallery, accompanied by some holiday-light history and trivia, safety tips and a low-wattage selection of lightbulb jokes.
“Electric Avenue will be featuring anything that has sizzle,” said Charney. “It will be the place where people can find really interesting stuff.”
The addition of “interesting stuff” is new for the Thousand Oaks-based Homestore.com., known as the Internet’s largest lister of homes for sale. It offers a cluster of home improvement and real estate-related services and is now expanding to other aspects of home life, such as decorating, Charney said. Consumers can enter by sending a photo of the exterior of their home by e-mail to lights@homestore.com or snail mail to 225 W. Hillcrest Drive, Suite 100, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360. “All we are asking for,” said Charney, “is a picture and a way to get in touch with the contestant.”
Nurture: Algabar at 920 N. La Cienega Blvd., which bills itself as a “home and life boutique,” is offering weekend customers some Asian-accented holiday respite along with its unusual gift ideas.
“We know people are rushing around, but that doesn’t mean they have to sacrifice gracious service,” said marketing coordinator Erin Shachory. “We want to emphasize the experience of not being in a mall.” Algabar customers will be treated to special amenities along with the store’s signature jazzy world music while waiting for gifts to be wrapped. On Saturday, from noon to 3 p.m., a sake tasting will be led by Andy Nakano, owner of Jozu restaurant, who will share insights into the popular Japanese rice wine. And, for a taste of feng shui, author and practitioner Angel Thompson will offer 15-minute personal consultations.
Sunday afternoon’s schedule includes a discussion of design ideas by artist Teena Leonardi, noted for watercolors on silk, and Tarot card readings by author Andrei Ridgeway.
Weekend hours are noon to 6 p.m.
