Downtown Oregon City Association has commissioned nine artists get the community through the doors of businesses during the holiday season.

DOCA Executive Director Liz Hannum didn't want to do the same old passport or holiday bingo program, so people visiting downtown businesses will instead be enjoying lightboxes, little vignettes like ZooLights or a drive-through holiday light village.

DOCA had a budget just over $3,000 to commission 20 boxes from the nine metro-area artists who created their versions of a holiday scene.

Lightboxes can be seen in various retail businesses downtown throughout the month of December. Starting Dec. 20, DOCA will auction off each box on Facebook through Jan. 1, so Hannum suggests people visit all 20 locations to find their favorites.

"This project is really meant to help support our downtown retail businesses during the toughest holiday shopping season in a century," Hannum said. "We have a new saying here: 'Buy local or Bye local,' so everything we do is to support local."

Hannum was inspired by a similar program in Albany and adapted it for Oregon City. Albany's "Unwrapped" program asks business owners to decorate their storefront windows.

"I didn't want to put any additional burden on the business owners to be creative in a time when they've had to max out their creativity to stay open, so I thought we could scale the idea down and pay a few local artists as a bonus," Hannum said. "The auction of the art pieces afterward was an afterthought, especially since they were so cool looking. But we'll be using the proceeds from the auction to do another art-based project that will drive the community to the businesses."

Artists include:

Shea O'Brien

Gina Miranda

Heidi Mullins Lemieux

Geoffrey LaMaye

Waldo McGinnis

Caleb Brouk

Luanna Parno

Participating businesses:

Modified Screen Printing

You Can Leave Your Hat On

Coin Corner

Naive Melody Vintage

Maizee Mae's Antiques

Sleep Dreams

LiveEdge Eco Salon

LiveEdge Woodshop

Busch Furniture

Illuminati Tattoo

Refinery Boutique

Municipal Elevator lobby

DOCA office

Homelife Furniture

White Rabbit Gifts

Mary Rose Boutique

Mesa Fresca

Haunted OC

Hardware Barber Shop

Salon Pretty