Annual gingerbread contest brings sweet competition to VCA

The contest featured 10 sweet creations.

By Mari Kanagy For The Beachcomber • December 25, 2024 10:30 am

It’s not always easy to find a dream home on Vashon — except when it comes to those built from gingerbread and icing.

Vashon Center for the Arts announced the winners of its fifth annual holiday gingerbread contest on Monday.

The contest featured 10 sweet creations, with 540 people voting to choose the four best-baked buildings. The gingerbread structures were on display from Dec 3. through Dec 23. Vashon Thriftway sponsored the event.

“What I loved about it was the holiday feeling that it gave,” said Daniel Meisner, VCA patron services associate. “Looking at all of these votes, you could tell the little kids were learning to write numbers.”

The creations ranged from the whimsical to the familiar.

“Candy Cane Lane,” the Best in Show prizewinner, boasted intricate red and white icing, and little amanita mushrooms dotted its snowy lawn. It was created by Leslee O’Reilly.

“Vashon Senior Center” rendered its subject faithfully, featuring a gingerbread senior with a candy cane, standing outside the beloved building on Bank Road.

“Bike in the Treehouse,” a spin on the island landmark, was voted as the Best Vashon Landmark. It was crafted by last year’s Best in Show winner, Russell Dorr, and his sons Weston, 15, and Garrett, 13.

For the Dorr family, gingerbread baking is a time for the family to come together. This year, their creation featured a treetop looming above a gingerbread village. The tree’s foundation was made from dense Rice Krispies, and its branches from pretzels and rosemary sprigs — all submissions must be entirely edible.

“We wanted to make something that looked really delicious to anyone who saw it,” Russell Dorr said.

Other winners, announced on Dec. 23, included the Wargo family’s “Treehouse,” winning Best Youth Design, and “Seek and Find Village,” which won the prize for Most Traditional Gingerbread House for Catherine and Michael Graeb and Dianne Kerwin.