This year, 219 entries competed for $40,000 in cash and prizes.
By Mike Pomranz Published on November 23, 2022
Thanks to Bob P.
Thanksgiving week marks the official start of the holiday season. But it also marks the official end of the National Gingerbread House Competition. Now in its 30th year, the annual event — billed as the largest gingerbread house competition in America — announces its winners just before Thanksgiving, leaving event hose The Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina time to put everything on display for the Christmas rush.
This year, the number of entries — which were first solicited back in July — nearly doubled from over 120 last year to a massive 219 houses in 2022. The cash and prizes across all of the categories also increased: a value of $40,000 compared to $25,000 in previous years.
Those weren’t the only changes. The event added new speciality awards alongside its usual first, second, and third place winners in its Adult, Teen, Youth, and Child categories. They also added a new judge: 2020 James Beard finalist Ashleigh Shanti joined a team headlined by celebrity chef Carla Hall. However, the judging criteria remained the same: All entries had to be 100% edible and composed of at least 75 percent gingerbread; they were then evaluated on “overall appearance, originality/creativity, difficulty, precision, and consistency of theme.”Ikea Made Gingerbread Patterns for Some of Its Famous Furniture
Here are this year’s winners: