It’s that time again – one occasion or another! If you work in a school or office area, you might be looking for fun ideas to get the whole student body or staff into the spirit (whatever holiday or event it is). Today, I am sharing door holiday door decorating contest rules and a general door decorating contest rubric that will work for various door decorating contest themes. You can use this post as inspiration for office door decorating ideas or door decorating contest ideas for school for various decorating contest categories. At my schools, we have organized a Breast Cancer Awareness Month door contest, a Christmas door decorating contest, Black History Month door contest, and Hispanic Heritage Month door contest. Ideas and photos are shared below!
If your workplace or living place has multiple doors, you can organize a door decorating contest! Live or work in a dorm? You can organize a dorm decorating contest! Live in an apartment? You can organize an apartment decorating contest!
Several years ago, I asked my school principal for permission to share these photos as that is what we school teachers do, right? We share ideas to help inspire others! I am fortunate to work with super creative coworkers and students.
Who Organizes These Competitions?
Any club, group, or staff member can organize a door display contest. In my schools, it is usually a department of teachers or a school club that proposes the contests. For instance, my fellow foreign language teachers and I host the Hispanic Heritage Month contest. Our student council often sponsors the Breast Cancer Awareness Month contest and the Black History Month contest.
Door Decorating Contest Rules
Before you start emailing your staff about the contest, you need to carefully think out the door decorating contest rules you wish to put into place. Nothing good comes out of running a competition with no clear plan. You need to think out themes and categories, prizes for the door decoration contest winners, etc.
What exactly are you critiquing the doors on – specific themes, creativity, teamwork? Who will be the judges?
To help you get started, I am sharing my door decorating brainstorming planner and my holiday door decorating contest rubric. I made these several years ago when a few other foreign language teachers and I hosted our first Hispanic Heritage Month competition. Since then, I have shared the rubric with several other coworkers who were heading up other classroom door decorating contests: Black History Month door contest, Breast Cancer Awareness Month door contest, and Christmas door decorations contest.
These two resources will help you whether you are planning a classroom door decorating contest, office door decorations contest, or apartment or dorm door contest.
Door Decorating Contest Description
Door Decorating Contest Rubric
What Are Some Office or School Door Decorating Contest Categories I Can Incorporate?
The sky is the limit, but you do need to be mindful of time of year when choosing your themes or categories. For example, as cute as it might be to come up with a back-to-school door competition, let’s think about how frazzled most teachers and school staff are in the weeks leading up to school and after. Your coworkers may come after you with their staplers for that one!
Here are some seasonal or holiday door decorating themes that might be more do-able, depending on the timeline and flow of your workplace, of course.
School Door Decorating Contest Ideas
- New Year, New Goals Contest
- Black History Month Door Decorating Contest
- Heart Health Month (February)
- Valentine’s Day Door Decorating Contest
- Kindness Door Decorating Contest
- Time to Bloom Contest (Spring)
- Year in Review Contest (End of School Year)
- Hispanic Heritage Month
- Breast Cancer Awareness
- Halloween Door
- Thankfulness
- Turkey Classroom Door
- Christmas
- Snowman Classroom Door for Winter Season
Office Door Decorating Ideas
For cubicle decorating contests or office door decorating, it might be best to stick to typical holiday themes.
- New Year, New Goals
- Valentine’s Day Door Decorating Contest
- Fourth of July Door Decorating Contest
- Halloween Door Decorating Contest
- Thankfulness
- Christmas Door
But Everyone is So Busy. When Will We Have Time to Decorate?
This is the BIG question. Do not implement a holiday or themed contest if your workspace cannot provide the time to put in the work. At my schools, we have a period in the day called Advisory. This is about 30 minutes of non-curriculum time, similar to what many schools may call a homeroom. This is often used as a time for students to work on homework and for teachers to check grades and have student conferences. This is a perfect time for the students to work together and decorate the doors.
But not every school has this built-in time in the day. Some principals or teachers may be flexible with allowing a certain number of minutes per day from a certain class period to be used for “team building” and working on the doors.
And the same goes for a workplace that is not a school. If you can’t imagine how the staff members would squeeze in even 20-30 minutes a day to decorate (unless they are encouraged and able to do a little on their own time), a door contest may not be right for your place.
I’ve said it a thousand times, and I’m sure I will say it a thousand more as long as I remain in the workforce. “We can only do what we can do with the time we are given to do it.”
Ideas for a Hispanic Heritage Month Door Decorating Contest
Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15. For a Hispanic Heritage Month Door Decorating contest, we encourage our students to stay away from typical stereotypes and try to give a deeper look into Hispanic culture. Here’s the thing…some classes will put walk the line of cultural appropriation mainly because they don’t know any better. There are certain stereotypical features they might add to their door designs that they don’t realize they shouldn’t use. Do your best to educate your coworkers of this issue when you introduce the contest rules, and use this as a teachable moment.
One of my favorite Hispanic Heritage doors of all time was this beautiful door art put together by a seventh grade English class. Rather than feeding into stereotypes, these students took inspiration from authentic Hispanic art and tried to recreate the beauty on their door. There were obviously students with artistic ability in this class. Sometimes, you luck out with artistic and creative kids. Other times, you have to do the best with other skills your students bring to the table.
Feast your eyes on these beautiful doors brought forth by wonderful students and staff!
At first glance, this pinata door might seem culturally stereotypical. However, when you really analyze the door, you will see the students of the eighth grade English class tied their English language knowledge to the door design. The door says, “English is Bursting with Words from Spanish.” Then, the “candy” bursting from the pinata has cognate words (similar words between two languages) written on them. Beneath the pinata, arms and hands of multiple skin colors reach for the candy. The door reveals more grand thought than what one might think just by glancing at the pinata.
Some classes take one particular Hispanic holiday or cultural aspect into their design. For example, a Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) door theme. Or a door designed around various musical instruments.
The class below, a geography class, focused on the flags and geographical regions of the Hispanic countries.
Ideas for a Breast Cancer Awareness Month Door Contest
Get your school or office into the swing of supporting the fight against breast cancer. Breast Cancer Awareness Month is during the month of October, which coincides with Hispanic Heritage Month, Halloween, and leads up to El Dia de los Muertos (the Day of the Dead).
There is something really nice about seeing an entire school or office banding together with breast cancer awareness month ideas for their doors.
I love the fun breast cancer awareness month quotes that some staff and students added to their doors. This door from the school nurses is super fun. And since Breast Cancer Awareness Month backs up to Halloween, a mummy theme is perfect!
A ninth grade English class had been studying Greek mythology. The students added a Greek mythology twist to their door.
A ninth grade Spanish class added a Spanish cultural element (lucha libre) and some Spanish wording to the door.
Christmas Door Decorating Contest
It isn’t just schools that have a Christmas door decorating contest. A lot of corporations and businesses organize an office Christmas decorating contest.
One of the super creative teachers at my school used her door and the teacher’s door beside hers to make a gingerbread house classroom door display. Since the two doors kind of go together in a little nook, it made for a cute gingerbread duplex!
You could do a Christmas tree theme where everyone must “decorate” a Christmas tree on their doors. Or you could open it up to any theme for a Christmas door contest. Our school student council group has sponsored a snowman door decorating contest where each classroom was given the same size white circles for a snowman body and head. It is so fun to see how each class puts a different spin or take on those basic three circles!
Look what a great job these kids did! They completely connected the Christmas door decoration to the subject of their class.
This Chemistree door for an upper-level science class is just precious! I mean…look at that star!
This math door is another one that connects to the curriculum.
And isn’t it fitting our dance team would create an adorable Sugar Plum Fairy Christmas door?
Winter Door Decorating Contest
If you prefer to do a winter door decorating contest instead of Christmas, you could focus on a winter wonderland door decorating contest. One of our wonderful student groups sponsored a snowman door decorating contest this past year. The group provided circles of butcher block for every class, and then gave each class the freedom to run free with creativity.
It was so fun to see how each class put a different spin on its snowman! There were some clever ideas! The great thing is that a snowman door can stay up past Christmas and into January. It is fun to come back to a winter classroom door after the winter break when most holiday decorations have been removed.
Black History Month Door Contest
There is a little bit of breathing room in the second semester after Christmas before it’s time to crank up activities again! Black History Month is celebrated during the month of February – February 1 – March 1.
Here are some great inspirational Black History month doors from the last years at my school.
This door with the path and the heart hands featuring famous Black Americans makes my heart swoon.
There are many portrait-style doors online, but I love how each class seems to put its own spin on the faces. I love how this door features some a music theme focusing on jazz music in New Orleans.
Since Black History Month also coincides with Valentine’s Day, this next door makes the best of both celebrations with its Galentine’s Day theme for #blackherstory month. So creative!
More Ideas for Fun for Teachers and Students
For more school fun for students and teachers, check out my other school-fun posts.
Christmas Desserts for the Classroom
Dirty Santa Ideas for the Classroom
Teacher Must Haves from Amazon
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