Each year, my wife and our 11-year-old daughter, Emma, make a gingerbread house for the holidays.
My wife and Emma spend hours putting the house together and decorating it with pieces of candy and tiny little beer cans. Wait, that last one is what I wanted to use to decorate the very first gingerbread house that my wife and Emma made, which is why I’m not allowed to help decorate the houses.
My wife and Emma are pretty good at making gingerbread houses. But as good as my wife and Emma are, they are nowhere ready to make a gingerbread house for the St. Luke’s Nursing Center’s “Ginger House, Rock and Gingerbread House Competition.” The competition is for the serious gingerbread house contractor. I’m not sure Frank Lloyd Wright would have been ready for the event because, to my knowledge, Frank never worked in the gingerbread house medium.
Sue Joslen is the administrator of St. Luke’s Nursing Center, 1220 E. Fairview Ave. in Carthage. She said the gingerbread competition is now in its fourth year.
“It’s a fun event, and it just gets bigger and bigger each year,” she said. “We’re just so happy with it.”
Folks who enter the competition typically spend several days putting their houses together. The structures are reviewed by a panel of judges who pick the top gingerbread house. The judges then require a police escort to leave the building. Ha, I joke. But only a little. As it turns out, gingerbread house folks tend to be a tad competitive. Imagine what it would be like if St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa and former college basketball coach Bobby Knight made competing gingerbread houses.
That’s the sort of competition you’ll find at the St. Luke’s contest.
“Oh, the houses are amazing,” Sue said. “I’m just in awe of the talent, patience and imagination that goes into them.”
Once the winners have been declared, the houses are auctioned off. It’s the auction where serious money is raised for the nursing center.
“The bidding gets pretty competitive too,” Sue said. “Last year, the houses went for anywhere from $5 to $280.”
Melinda and Steve Wilson are veteran gingerbread house competitors. The Wilsons took home a second place the first year of the contest, a first place the next year and a second place last year.
In accordance with the rules, the Wilsons make their houses from scratch — no kits are allowed — and everything on the outside of the house must be edible. One year, the Wilsons’ creation revolved around a Noah’s Ark theme, complete with a host of animals molded out of fondant. Fondant, I learned, is an icing commonly used in the big-time gingerbread house game.
The year the Wilsons took home a first place, they made a gingerbread church, which is appropriate, seeing as how Steve is the pastor of Grace Episcopal Church in Carthage. When I spoke with Melinda on Thursday, she had already baked her gingerbread, and she was working on the walls of her house and molding some of the characters and decorations that will be placed on the outside of the house. This year, Melinda said, the Wilsons are making Santa’s house.
“It’s the day after Christmas, and he’s relaxing,” she said.
It takes the Wilsons several days from start to finish to complete a gingerbread house. First of all, the couple have to sketch out their design. Once they settle on a design, Melinda makes a template of the design. After that, she bakes the gingerbread and builds the house. While the house is setting, she and Steve work on all of the extras.
Melinda acknowledges there is a certain competitiveness among many of the regular gingerbread house teams, but she insists it’s all in good fun.
“It’s all friendly,” she said. “If we don’t win, we don’t care. It’s still fun, and it’s for a good cause.”
The proceeds from this year’s contest will be used to outfit the nursing center garden.
“This spring, the residents will get together and decide what flowers, plants and vegetables they want in the garden, and we will use the money raised to purchase them,” Sue said.
The gingerbread competition begins at 5:30 p.m. Monday at St. Luke’s, and the auction will begin once the judging is completed. For more information or to enter the contest, you may call 417-358-9084.
