This article is about the Proxi admin app at app.proxi.co.
Call it a Christmas Lights Map, Holiday Lights Tour, Tour of Lights, Candy Cane Lane, Festival of Lights, Holiday Light Fight, Deck the Block contest, or Luminaria Tour — a map of your community's best light displays is pure December magic. Families drive it with cocoa in the cupholders, the houses compete, and your downtown gets an excuse to keep shoppers out after dark. Here's the full build, and it's mostly the community doing the work.
1. Create the Map and Make It Festive
Create a new map — "Maple Grove Tour of Lights" — and in Display → Map style, pick the Holiday style (or Winter for a snowy look, or Night to make lit-up markers feel right). In Branding, go red-and-green (we'll warn you if the combination is hard to read) and drop in your logo.
2. Set Up Categories and Fields
In Fields, expand Category and use Paste list: "Big Displays, Music & Lights, Candy Cane Lane Blocks, Cocoa & Treat Stops, Santa Sightings." Give each a marker via Edit marker — the icon search has plenty of seasonal options.
Add a text field called "Lights On" for each display's hours ("5–10pm nightly through Jan 1") — it shows right on the card.
Running a contest? Add a checkbox field called "Contest Entry" and turn it on as a filter, so voters can see just the competitors.
3. Let the Community Nominate Displays
Seed the map with the famous houses everyone already knows (double-click their spots), then open nominations. On the collection, click Public submissions, switch it on, and keep Require approval before publishing on. In Edit Form, keep it joyful and short: "Nominate a display for the Tour of Lights! Your own house or a neighbor's — if it glows, we want it." Ask for the address, a photo, and your Lights On field. Share the form link in neighborhood groups and the school newsletter, then approve entries from the Review queue as they sparkle in. (See Collecting Places From Your Community.)
4. Turn It Into a Driving Tour
Add a Short code field called "Stop Number," number your route, and switch on Markers → Numbers on markers — now the map reads as a tour, not a scatter. (See Showing Numbers on Your Map's Markers.)
Draw the suggested route as a line in Shapes & Overlays so families can follow it end to end.
Set Get directions to driving mode in Point Card → Actions.
Print a glovebox version: Print & Export, Map + list template, list sorted by Point number, with Show QR code on so the paper map opens the live one. (See Printing Your Map.)
5. Run the Decorating Contest
Turn on the Upvotes action (Point Card → Actions) and rename it — "Vote for this display!" — with the count showing. Every visitor's phone is a ballot, and the tally runs live.
Timeline that works: nominations close about 10 days before Christmas, voting runs for a week, winners announced at your holiday event or on social.
Close voting by switching the action off at the deadline, then crown your winners — gift cards to local businesses keep the prize money downtown.
Two simple rules up front save headaches: family-friendly displays only, and decorated by the resident.
Want a photo gallery too? Spin up a Passport from the same collection with Photo Check-in — families snap each display they visit, and the feed becomes your community's holiday album. (See Testing Your Challenge or Scavenger Hunt Before Launch before it goes live.)
6. Bring Your Businesses Along
This is where a lights map becomes a downtown play, not just a neighborhood one:
Add Cocoa & Treat Stops — cafes and shops open late during the tour window, each with a deal in the offer field ("$1 cocoa with the map"). Cold families buy warm things.
Sell a presenting sponsor into the header ("Tour of Lights, presented by First National Bank") and featured pins to businesses along the route — the same inventory covered in the festival guide's money section.
A yard sign at each stop with the map's QR code ("This house is on the Tour of Lights — scan to see them all") turns every display into a billboard for the whole tour.
7. Share It and Keep It Alive
Set a glowing link preview image in the Sharing section — this map gets passed around Facebook groups more than anything else you'll publish all year.
Embed it on your website, and post the map link (not screenshots) so people always see the newest houses — the map grows every time you approve a nomination, which is a reason to re-share it weekly.
After New Year's, archive gracefully: the map stays; next November, Duplicate Map gives you a fresh copy, and returning houses are one approval away. Check Analytics for the season's views to show sponsors — lights maps rack up numbers fast.
Beyond the Map: Contest and Tour Tips
Publish the "Lights On" window with every stop — the most common complaint on lights tours is arriving at a dark house. The nomination form asking for hours solves it at the source.
Remind drivers of the etiquette in the map description: headlights down on Candy Cane Lane blocks, don't block driveways, and keep the music at car volume.
Weight the voting fairly — one vote per phone is how the upvote button works, which keeps ballot-stuffing in check without any setup.
Give every winner a category — Best Overall, Best Music Sync, Best Theme, People's Choice — more winners means more houses that return next year.
Worth a read on the Proxi blog: building a holiday lights tour map, hosting holiday light decor contests, the West Des Moines Chamber's Candy Cane Trail (a real chamber-run holiday trail), and making a holiday event map for your city. For contest mechanics beyond Proxi: a working municipal decorating-contest model (same format, different season).