WESTBROOK – Twenty-two Westbrook businesses have signed on to participate in a holiday window-decorating competition, with a winner to be determined through social media voting and announced in two weeks.

The event, the first from the recently organized Downtown Westbrook Coalition, is aimed at providing a festive and creative look to the downtown, as well as to get downtown businesses involved in the coalition’s events.

Abigail Cioffi, coalition coordinator, said Tuesday that interest in the event is a good sign.

“The whole idea is to get people and businesses involved in an event downtown,” she said.

The deadline for participation is this Friday, Cioffi said, partly because the coalition would like to have storefronts decorated in time for other events this weekend that kick off the holiday season, such as the Festival of Trees and the annual tree lighting. However, she said, if more businesses want to join in or need more time, it’s not a strict deadline.

The coalition was accepted as the 20th Maine Downtown Network in November, under the Maine Development Foundation. The Downtown Network program is based on the national “Main Street” and Main Street Maine models, but designed for downtowns relatively new to a structured revitalization effort.

While most businesses are putting time aside to decorate their storefront windows this week, some have already been completed, including Full Court Press on Main Street.

Helping owner Ed Symbol decorate the windows was Maria Dorn, director of community services for the city. Dorn, who is a longtime friend of Symbol, said jokingly that she was trying to assist Symbol in finding his “artistic talent.”

“Full Court Press is extraordinary to us, and they’re just a great business,” she said. Dorn said it was a good way to help a community business, and also get kids into the holiday spirit.

Dorn and children from the Westbrook Community Center’s after-school program volunteered their time to decorate the windows, which depict a number of Christmas letters to Santa. Earlier, staff from Full Court Press had already displayed “Star Wars”-themed decorations in other windows.

The winner of the window-decorating event will be decided through voting on social media, and will be announced during the coalition’s new “Business in the Brook” event at Mister Bagel on Thursday, Dec. 18, from 5-7 p.m.. The winning business will receive a pizza party courtesy of Portland Pie.

Voting will take place on the coalition’s Facebook page – facebook.com/DowntownWestbrookCoalition – and will begin after the last participating business finishes decorating. Voting will end at noon on Dec. 18.

Cioffi said the purpose of the after-hours event is to bring the downtown community together with city councilors and other officials as a “meeting ground” for conversation about things going on in Westbrook. Cioffi said she will give a short presentation about the coalition and its projects. The event will also feature a cash bar, food and live music.

At Full Court Press, a series of letters to Santa can be seen by the front door. The Downtown Westbrook Coalition’s first event, a holiday window-decorating contest, has 22 businesses on board.   Current Publishing has joined the window-decorating contest at its 840 Main St. office.