A Hanauma Bay lifeguard tower, family portraits drawn by schoolchildren and a tree full of singing birds were among the many interpretations of the theme “Honolulu Hale” entered in the City and County of Honolulu 34th annual holiday wreath contest, now on view through Dec. 31 at the Honolulu Hale Lane Gallery.

The contest categories were adult, youth and theme wreaths; judges were City Commissioners of Culture and the Arts Gail Harada, Tim Slaughter and Ann Asakura.

“It’s all about the community,” said curator Marion Cadora of the Mayor’s Office for Culture and the Arts, noting that this year the exhibit had guest curators for the first time.

With support from the Estria Foundation, students from a Kaimuki High School art class went through all 77 submissions and brainstormed sub-categories, including “recycle,” “mechanical” and “#foodislife,” in which to display the wreaths.

A sense of togetherness and caring for others prevailed throughout, with such colorful, diverse submissions as “Hawaii Holiday Hale in da Patio,” with clothespin dolls in the costumes of their places of origin, by the DOE employment records department.

“I wanted to celebrate all the guards that work hard to keep the people safe,” Brooke Moniz, mother of a Honolulu City and County lifeguard, wrote about “Ocean Safety Hale Holiday,” for which she won a Judges’ Choice award.

Another Judges’ Choice was Malama Honua Public Charter School’s “Hale o Manu,” with its native ohia lehua tree and honeycreepers made of painted paper rolls and its call to “malama the homes of our native animals just as we malama our own.”

Helen Walker’s “Hoku” was dedicated to the Hokule‘a sailing canoe, while its red-and-white, palaka print recalled a Mayor Kirk Caldwell aloha shirt.

Natural materials glowed in Kathy Tosh’s big, gorgeous dried botanical arrangement with ribbon and blue paint, which won the Mayor’s Holly Award (Best in Show).

Other captivating — and winning — entries included a mouthwatering spread of Spam musubi and sushi by Foster Botanical Garden Tuesday Volunteers, which took first place in the theme category; Json N’s shopping mall full of busy mice, which took second in adult wreaths; “Do You Want to Build a Sandman?”, a beach scene that won first place in youth wreaths for Emma and Elle Pedrina and Kira Ann and Everett Arquero; and “Time Gone By,” origami circles made from old calendar art, a Judges’ Choice in adult wreaths.

The Lane Gallery felt alive with the personalities of the wreath subjects, artists and the assistant curators who’d organized and hung the show.

“When I walk in here, I still see the students,” Cadora said, gazing around the bright room with a smile.

For a complete list of winners, go to honolulu.gov.

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WINNERS

Holly Award: “Work with what you’ve got,” by Kathy Tosh

ADULT WREATH CATEGORY

First place: “Oahu grown, home made,” by Adrienne Kleid Shoenau

Second place: “Mousetown Mall,” by Json N

Third place: “Haleluia!” by Marshall K. Fergerstrom

YOUTH WREATH CATEGORY

First place: “Do you want to build a sandman? Olaf in Hawaii,” by Emma and Elle Pedrina and Kira Ann and Everett Arquero

Second place: “Home is where the heart is,” by Seagull School Ko Olina Classroom 3

Third place: “…by the seashore,” by Tayte Ka‘ikepono Dunbar and Papa Fergie

THEME CATEGORY

First place: “Rice is nice,” by Foster Botanical Garden Tuesday Volunteers

Second place: “Christmas deeply rooted in my family’s tradition,” by Muriel Miura

Third place: “Holiday tweets from our hale,” by Marian Bernal