Peddler's Village Annual Gingerbread Competition

If you read my blog regularly, or know me, you know I am originally from NJ. My parents still live in the town I grew up in, Sergeantsville, so I visit often, especially during the holidays. One of our traditions at Thanksgiving or Christmas, is to visit Peddler's Village to view the winners of the Annual Gingerbread Competition! Peddler's Village is located in Lahaska, PA in the heart of Bucks County. It is a grouping of over 70 specialty shops, 6 restaurants and the Giggleberry entertainment center. When you enter the village you feel like you have stepped back in time into a small village. The buildings are brick and form a circle around a landscaped area of trees, ponds and bridges. There is usually a man selling hot cider from a cauldron suspended from a tripod over a wood fire. The entire village is always lit up for Christmas. Every building is outlined in white lights, and the trees are lit colorfully.


Each year during the holidays, my family makes the trek to Peddler's Village to view the winners of the Gingerbread Competition. There is an enclose gazebo in the middle of the village which always houses the winners. This year someone actually reproduced it in gingerbread! (Talk about sucking up) I never knew much about the competition, other than it happens every year and I like to view the winners, but since I decided to write about it, I thought I would look up some information on it.


The competition happens in early November. This year, the deadline for registration was Nov. 13th and the entry drop off date was Nov. 15th. In other words, you better start baking around Halloween or earlier depending on the difficulty of your gingerbread! Once your gingerbread is entered, it stays on display between Thanksgiving through New Years. The winners are always announced before Thanksgiving.


The competition has various categories to allow for all ages to sign up and to allow the creativity of individuals stand out.


1. Traditional Gingerbread
2. Authentic Reproduction of a Significant Building
3. Student Gingerbread for ages 13-18
4. Kids only 12 and under (Every year you can tell some parents helped. Shame on you!)
5. Incredibly Unusual 3-D
6. And the newest category Go Green!


Gingerbread is judged on the following criteria:


1. Overall Appearance/Composition of Design
2. Originality/Imagination/Use of Materials
3. Fit into Category
4. Difficulty of Design/Design of Execution
5. Holiday Spirit


There aren't a whole lot of rules but here the main ones:


Creations must be constructed of mainly gingerbread (50% or more)
Non-Visible Interior Supports: Non-edible materials may be used for non-visible support
Everything Visible on your entry MUST be edible.

For the complete list of rules go here:
http:httppeddlersvillage.com/special_events/pdfs/2009gingerbread.pdf

and now for some of my favorites... Enjoy the tradition!

This was beautiful the picture doesn't do it justice.

This was entered into the kid's category and won. I suspect a parent was involved. I am just saying...
Santa in the summer



This is the gingerbread factory. It thought this was very original
This is the reproduction of the gazebo which holds the gingerbread!

Tavern on the Green
One of the entries in the new "Go Green" category

Jimmy Stewart would be thrilled!