Hearts and Hands United

2013 National Gingerbread House Competition

The Omni Grove Park Inn

Asheville, NC

This was the twenty first year of the gingerbread house competition. It was started in 1992 with a small group of gingerbread houses built by community members. It was another way to celebrate the holiday season and no one expected it to happen again. Now it has become one of the nation's most celebrated events. The competition is fierce and the caliber of judges is astounding. 

Although it is billed as a gingerbread house competition, the winner this year were animals. A pair of pandas eating bamboo was the grand prize winner. This creation traveled from Wisconsin for the competition. It was very hard to get a good photo as it was in a glass showcase with mirrors on the back.

All items on the entry must be edible except for the base it is built on. Many were made of gingerbread and covered in fondant while others were very much bare gingerbread except for the decorations. So enjoy the show and maybe put it on your calendar for next year. It starts the week before Thanksgiving and runs through New Year's Day. There is a short period of time - I think the week of Christmas - that the top winners are taken to NYC for TV appearances.

Santa is flying in on his Canadian Goose.

Can you see the mice in the clock? The clock weights looked like pine cones.  

This was a very simple A-frame gingerbread house and then they added all the sugar work.  The snowflakes on the roof were a work of art.

And what is not to love about a trip to the amusement park on the boardwalk? 

I think this was one of my favorites. The title was "I Should Have Taken the Sleigh". Can't you just see Santa and the misses zipping around in that sporty red car?

This one was called "Mall Santa". What a familiar scene these days. 

 The details on this piece were incredible. You could stand for an hour and not see everything. Each book on the shelves was individually done. The cards on the mantle painted. There was a worn spot on the braided rug. Look at the stones in the fireplace. Talk about patience!

And one of my favorite. The simplicity of the scene is wonderful. It is called "Gingerbread in G Minor".