Given two hours to compete, 400 Saint Anselm students divided into teams of four on Nov. 30 in Davison Hall and raced to build the most creative gingerbread house. Provided by the Davison baking staff, each team was stocked with delicious supplies such as gingerbread, colorful frosting, hard candies, and more which were used to execute their creative and detailed masterpieces.

The annual Gingerbread House Competition is a long-standing Christmas tradition at Saint Anselm College, one that draws in large numbers of students from all classes for this good-spirited yet very competitive evening. The stakes are, in fact, quite high: not only does the winning team get the ultimate bragging rights for an entire year to come, but the top three winners get cash prizes. The first-place team takes home a grand prize of $400, second-place is awarded $200, and third-place receives $100.

Many students find that participating in this annual event is one of their favorite things about being an Anselmian. Reflecting on her final year of competing, senior Amanda Richards stated, “The competition comes at a time in the semester when everyone is most stressed, and I love that it gives students a couple hours to forget about the stress of school and enjoy time with their friends”.

Amanda was last year’s Gingerbread House winner, for her and her team’s “Netflix and Chill” themed design, which included a life-sized laptop made of candy. When asked what they thought won them the first-place title, both Amanda and her team member Ginger Gates ’17 insisted that pop culture references always give a competitive edge and that their team tried to think outside the box to make their design stand out.

For some students, the competitiveness of the evening is what draws them in. For others, it is the promise of a night filled with friendship, Christmas tunes to sing along and a venue to finally display that ugly Christmas sweater bought months ago for the occasion. A first-year contest participant, sophomore Braelyn Croteau, found that for her it was less about winning and more about the Christmas spirit: “I cannot wait until next year. The Christmas season is my favorite and there is no better way I would rather spend it than with my friends making gingerbread houses and singing along to Christmas music.” Braelyn’s team chose to make a tribute to the Girl’s Field Hockey team by recreating Grappone Stadium from a “hawk’s-eye view”, with a scoreboard that reads “1889” to commemorate the founding year of Saint Anselm College.

The spectacular array of creative and colorful gingerbread houses are now on display as the Anselmian Gingerbread House Village, which surrounds the Christmas tree in Davison Hall. Go visit the Village, pick up a ballot from the Davison Office, and vote for your favorite house. Winners will be announced on Friday, Dec. 9.