A Flurry of Talented Young Wrappers

This year's entries to Weekend's annual Holiday Wrapping Paper Contest were as unique and beautiful as each snowflake that falls in the winter. Boy, did we get a record amount of snow.

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More than 1,700 kids entered this year's contest, and our four judges -- Weekend Editor Tracy Grant, KidsPost Editor Marylou Tousignant, Assistant Managing Editor for News Art Michael Keegan and Weekend art director Marty Barrick -- had to dig their way through piles of entries to find one winner and 12 runners-up.

This year's winner is well-known on the local art scene. If you live in Herndon, you might have seen 12-year-old Andrew Goldman's mural outside the Starbucks at Dulles Town Center when it was recently under construction. His art is also on view on the fronts of students at Clearview Elementary School in Herndon. Andrew has designed the T-shirts and spirit wear for his school the past several years. Two years ago, he was a runner-up in our contest.

This year it was easy for the judges to see why his work is so popular. The bold colors and well-executed details of his color-penciled snowmen and Christmas trees made it a top choice.

"I loved how he cut off the bottom of the snowman and it continues at the top," Grant said during the judging.

Andrew is soft-spoken for such a successful sixth-grader, but he makes his goal of becoming a professional artist quite clear. His favorite things to draw are "scenes like sunsets and that kind of stuff," a skill he has developed by simply taking a pad of paper with him everywhere and drawing what he sees around him.

Some of this year's runners-up found unusual sources of inspiration for their entries.

"My pajamas kind of gave me the idea," says Claire Flynt, 10, whose penguin-themed pattern featured the orange-legged animals wearing Santa hats. She practiced before putting together her final entry and says draws for an hour every day to prepare for a career in art.

Penguins were a popular motif this year, and so were snowmen. Claire Beaulieu, 10, designed gift wrap that features snowmen and a diverse group of kids holding hands. She says she chose the theme because "some people celebrate different holidays."

Judges thought 11-year-old Austin Burch also made a poignant statement. His wrapping paper had an environmentally friendly theme of recycling. He wrote that "the holidays can bring millions of tons of extra trash on the Earth. We need to celebrate, have fun and remember to have a green holiday!"

Andrew and the runners-up had plenty of advice for kids who want to enter next year: Use your imagination, do it neatly, practice a couple of times and, when all else fails, try 7-year-old Katelyn McIntyre's approach of using vibrant shades. Katelyn's paper features pink presents because "that's my favorite color!"