The Columbia County Courthouse is fully decorated for the holiday season, with Christmas lights streamed around the building and on the grounds and much of the Magnolia Square matching the centralized building in decorations.
Inside the courthouse are the remnants of a Christmas tree competition hosted among the departments of the County.
Nine decorated Christmas trees line the initial hallway at the entrance of the courthouse and will remain there until the end of the holiday season. Some of the trees display patriotic colors and themes; others were decorated with more common Christmas colors; and two displayed decorations that were a direct homage to the department that set them up.
Three judges from the community made their way to each tree with clipboards and pens in hand to rank the trees using a point system with fields listed for creativity, theme and originality, with a maximum score at 100 points. The Judges were Debbie Arnold, senior vice president of marketing for Peoples Bank; Micki Mitchell, directer of the Chamber of Commerce; and Tommy Fallin, owner of Fallin Tractor Company, Inc.
With the trees numbered, the group started together and finished their judging at different times. Fallin was first to make his way through all the trees, followed by Mitchell, then Arnold. After the points were tallied up, Columbia County Judge Denny Foster arrived at the second-floor courtroom and told the participants that there was only a five-point difference between first and second place.
The road department was declared the winner of the contest, with the County Judge’s office in second place and the Circuit Clerk’s office in third. The Road Department received a plaque that displayed all of the trees in the contest titled ‘Columbia County Judge 2020 Christmas Tree Contest Winner’. The Road Department also received $90 that they could use in any celebratory manner at their office.
Foster closed the event, congratulating the Road Department for their win and asked the departments to continue the holiday spirit through the New Year. A flyer from the competition states the following:
“It’s that time of year, when we come together to spread our Christmas Cheer. So we had a little Christmas Tree Competition to help fill our county with Christmas Cheer during the COVID scare. We put our trees in the hall hoping to spread Christmas spirit to all. Wow! Look what we did! Our Courthouse has never spread so much Christmas Cheer! It’s what we all do this time of year. So, I ask us all not to let this end, but to spread our cheer thorough our county and into the New Year. In your spare time, stop by and stroll the hall. There’s a tree for everyone!”