Whetstone Watch

Happy Holidays Whetstone!

by Jamie & Kathy Martin

Happy Holidays Whetstone!

2024 has been a year of changes and a reminder that we are fortunate to live in a community where neighbors still check on neighbors, and where people make a genuine effort to share their enthusiasm for the holiday season with the rest of us.  Please allow me to present our 2024 Whetstone Holiday Lights review.  Our crack team of amateurish and decidedly unprofessional judges once again took to the streets of our fair community to enjoy the sights and appreciate the work that Whetstoners put onto decorating their homes every year.  Here are the awards.

KIDS DELIGHT

This is a house that is colorful, cheerful, friendly, perhaps a bit quirky, and that we think kids would surely appreciate.  Last year’s winner, 9500 Appeals Place, again impressed with its enormous house-sized Santa keeping watch over the street.  We also appreciated 9808 Freestate Place with its stable full of reindeer and Santa on a motorbike.  But the winner this year is a perennial heavy-weight champion of a holiday house.  9748 Whetstone Drive has everything.  You’ve seen it. You have driven by and thought “…WOW…those decorations really are great!”  Santa…lights…critters…countdown clock… It is just a great house every year.  

BEST TRADITIONAL DECORATION

This is a house with traditional lights, perhaps candles in windows, wreaths, maybe in a Williamsburg style, which may include greens, dried flowers, or a pineapple-adorned and apple-encrusted fruit fan over the front door.  There were some lovely houses this year.  18813 South Meadow Fence is just beautiful every year.  We also wanted to shout out 9300 Iron Horse, with its lights, deer, and sleigh.  But for sheer postcard beauty, the winner this year for best traditional decoration is 9717 Breckenridge Place.  This house would be on the cover of Whetstone magazine, if such a thing existed.  The lights are elegant, tasteful, and placed carefully to conjure up a welcoming traditional holiday feeling.  We look forward to seeing it every year.  

WINTER WONDERLAND

This is a house that we think captured the essence of the winter holiday season, perhaps with colorful characters, sleds, snow, icicles, and decorations that evoke the chill of a wintery holiday.   This year the award goes to 9724 Digging, with its beautiful lights and stars exploding into life, it brought out the wonder in us.  There were other very very nice houses we considered.  9324 Judge Place was lovely.  There is an enormous star at 19004 Oxcart that caught our attention.  And we applaud the efforts of 19140 Roman Way in the Courts.  

BEST STREET

This is a street that has embraced the holiday season together.  Many (if not all, though certainly a majority) of the houses have committed to decorating and conveying a sense of community and unified celebration.  We understand that some streets/courts are bigger than others, and we try to take that into consideration.  For 2024 this was a tight race.  There are perennial contenders like Annapolis Way that are undeniable.  And there is a new horse in the race this year.  Appeals Place staked a claim with a lovely community effort. Also, in the Courts of Whetstone, on the bottom left side of Roman Way, those folks really came together this year with a lovely display.  However, we are giving the 2024 Best Street Award to Breckenridge Place.  The sense of community evident this year, and really every year, is undeniable.  We recommend you take the time to drive through, or by, all these streets every year, and we encourage other streets to come together and take on the challenge in 2025!

BEST OVERALL HOUSE

Awarding “Best House” is a challenge every year as “best” is a superlative that necessarily embodies a certain level of discretion and personal judgment.  For us, this is a house that was a complete and fully realized vision of the holiday.  The award for 2024 goes to 9304 Judge Place.  This house is a gem, in part because it is not “on the way” in or out of the neighborhood.  You must seek it out.  But if you do, it is worth your time.  With its roof-top flag and star you could not drive, walk, or fly by Judge Place without it demanding your attention.  If Whetstone was blanketed with fog and Santa’s reindeer needed a beacon to find the neighborhood, this would be the house that ensured gifts made it to the children of Whetstone.  

That concludes our Whetstone Holiday Lights review for 2024.  Thank you all!  As with last year, there were a few notable absences this year around the neighborhood.  We hope that when the 2025 holiday season rolls around, Whetstone residents will be reinvigorated, and others will be inspired to join in.  The tradition of making Whetstone a merry and bright representation of our community during the holiday season is one of the things we look forward to every year.  If you took the time to decorate your house this year, but we did not mention it, please know that we appreciated every display, no matter how small, as they all helped to lift our spirits and remind us of the importance of neighbors and friends.

Cheers! 

Jamie & Kathy Martin

Whetstone Watch: for residents of The Courts, Goshenside, Lakeside and the Ridges of Whetstone.