Winner - Penrith 2016 Christmas Window Dressing Competition

Judging took place on Saturday 26th November of the Penrith Christmas window dressing competition.

Each year businesses in the town are invited to dress up their windows and get into the Christmas spirit. This year the theme set by Penrith Chamber of Trade for the competition was “Make Penrith Sparkle”.

This year’s judges were Heidi Marshall; Partner of Dodd & Co Chartered Accountants and President of Penrith Chamber of Trade, Karen Harvey; Acorn Guest House and Vice President Penrith Chamber of Trade, Peter Hilton; Cumbria Mailing Services and Penrith Chamber of Trade Member and Stephen Connelly; M&Co and Penrith Chamber of Trade Member.

With over 40 entrees scattered all around Penrith town centre and Gilwilly Industrial Estate being judged between Retail and Non-Retail, a new in-depth scoring form and so many fabulous windows to judge, it took the judges nearly 4 hours to view them all. The winners in each category are:

Retail:

1st       Muster, King Street

2nd      Finesse Jewellery, Middlegate

3rd       Greenwheat Flowers & Fika, Brunswick Road

Non-Retail:

1st       Eden Estate Agents, Little Dockray

2nd      Cartmell Shepherd Solicitors, Bishop Yards

3rd       Eden Healthy Lifestyle Studio, Gilwilly Road

The judges were impressed with the effort that businesses had gone to to ‘Make Penrith Sparkle’ with their windows and thought it was great to see so many businesses getting involved and supporting the initiative this year.  The high standard of entrees could be seen from the results, as there were only a couple of marks between the top few windows.

The officially announcement of the window dressing winners is Saturday 3rd December to coincide with the start of the weeklong Totally Locally Fiver Fest & Small Business Saturday.  Lots of independent shops and ‘hidden gems’ in the town are coming together to celebrate Christmas with a unique Fiver Fest.  People are encouraged to support as many small businesses as they can on Small Business Saturday whilst visiting the town for lots of special offers in the run up to Christmas.

A full list of all businesses involved in the window dressing competition can be found at www.penrithwinterfestival.co.uk, along with lots more events that are taking place in and around Penrith in the run up to Christmas.