Who doesn’t look forward to Christmas to see and build gingerbread houses with friends and family? I know for me, I really look forward to decorating gingerbread houses during Christmas time!

In November every year, adults, teens, and kids build gingerbread houses for the National Gingerbread Competition at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. The kid’s houses are more freely done, but the adults and teens are more delicately put together. Some spend a whole year planning and building these houses. They are very extravagant and well put together. Hundreds of people compete in this competition.

Over the summer, I went with the new Culinary Arts teacher, Mrs. Katie Goodson, and some other students to The Omni Grove Park Inn. We attended a class with one of the professional judges on some tips for the competition. Myself, along with students Addy Swofford, Katelyn Hogg, and Makayla Clobes, entered the 27th annual competition with the Institute of Innovation with the Culinary teacher there. We spent from about the end of September to the beginning of November working on our house.

We created a “Christmas Tree Lodge.” We put a house in the middle and trees outside of it, a campfire, and more on the board. It was all edible and took a lot of determination and concentration to make. We took the house up to Asheville for judging on November 17th. The next night, we attended the awards ceremony. We ended up getting third place in the teen division. The hard work definitely paid off. We are all excited to compete again for the Institute of Innovation at next year’s Omni Grove Park Inn National Gingerbread Competition. All of the gingerbread houses are on display at the Omni Grove Park Inn from now until January 4th.