Introducing the 2025 Macaroni KID Harrisburg & West Shore Family Favorites Awards!
Parents of Harrisburg, Mechanicsburg, Camp Hill, and the West Shore—it’s time to roll out the red carpet for your most-loved local businesses! We’re thrilled to announce the launch of our 2025 Family Favorites Awards, where you get to nominate, vote, and celebrate the best of the best in family-friendly services, activities, and businesses.
These awards are all about YOU—our local families—shining a spotlight on the places and people that make parenting a little easier, a lot more fun, and sometimes even delicious (looking at you, ice cream shops). Whether it’s the playground that saves your Saturdays, the dentist who makes your kids actually smile, or the bakery that turns birthday parties into legends, we want to hear about your favorites.
How It Works
This campaign is as easy as pie (which, by the way, is another category you can nominate for). Here's the plan:
- Nominations: From now until January 25th submit your favorite businesses for each category HERE.
- Voting: Once nominations close, the top contenders move on to the voting round. It’s like the Oscars, but with fewer speeches and more playgrounds.
- Results: The winners will be announced in a celebratory article highlighting the best businesses in the Harrisburg and West Shore area!
Categories for 2025
We’ve got categories for everything you and your family love—check them out:
🏆 Best Playground
🏆 Best Indoor Fun Spot
🏆 Best Summer Camp
🏆 Best Pediatric Dentist
🏆 Best Birthday Party Venue
🏆 Best Family Photographer
🏆 Best Ice Cream Spot
🏆 Best Coffee Shop for Tired Parents (essential, obviously)
🏆 Best Toy Store
🏆 Best Preschool
🏆 Best Family-Friendly Restaurant
🏆 Best After-School Program
... and more!
Why Participate?
WHY NOMINATE? What's in it for you?
- A good feeling knowing you supported your favorite local businesses
- Something fun to do to share the #717Local love
WHAT WILL THE WINNING BUSINESSES RECEIVE?
- Family Favorite Award Digital Badge for their website and social media
- Family Favorite Award Certificate to proudly display in their place of business
- Recognition in an article that reaches all of our readers
- Free Premium Annual Business Directory Listing on our website
- The honor of knowing that Harrisburg & West Shore area families think they are the greatest!
- The business with the most overall votes will win an advertising package with Macaroni KID Harrisburg & West Shore Area!
Nominate Your Favorites Now!
Ready to shout out the amazing places that make life better for your family? Click HERE to submit your nominations! But hurry—nominations close on [date]!
Let’s celebrate everything that makes the Harrisburg and West Shore area the ultimate place to raise a family. Because when it comes to creating unforgettable moments, these businesses deserve the spotlight!
Stay tuned for updates as we move to the voting round and finally reveal the winners. Happy nominating! 🎉
What are you waiting for? Fill out the 2025 Nomination Form now!
RULES:
- Only 1 Nomination Form per email address
- Each nomination will also count as one vote in the voting round
- You may not nominate with an email address that is not your own
- Businesses may nominate themselves
- Businesses may ask for their friends, customers, and colleagues to nominate them
- To be eligible to vote, you must be a harrisburg.macaronikid.com subscriber. It is always FREE to subscribe to the local Macaroni KID newsletter
- By nominating, you agree to be subscribed if you are not already a current subscriber.
- Macaroni KID confirms AND validates each email to ensure authenticity. We reserve the right to eliminate votes that are deemed to be invalid or have interfered with the fair administration of this contest
When visiting events and local businesses, be sure to tell them Macaroni KID sent you... and don't forget to tell all your friends!
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Speaking of survival tips, join our Facebook Group, Macaroni Village of South Central PA, a collaboration across several regions where we swap snow-day stories, share winter hacks, and collectively try to figure out how to wrestle kids into snow boots before the school delay turns into a snow day. It’s practically a miracle worthy of its own Hallmark movie! ❄️💬
