‘Eine beliebte Tradition’: Strong Showing at Annual German Gingerbread Competition

The fluorescent Commons lights illuminate a frenzied sea of hands planning, pasting, and occasionally pausing to pop into expectant mouths a gummy bear or the occasional pfefferminze.

This is the annual German gingerbread house (or Lebkuchenhaus) competition, hosted by German teacher Frau Julie Bequette, and very rarely does it consist of actual gingerbread houses.

The projects this year included a German beer mug, a model campsite, and more. Teams of students raced against the clock, pasting, smoothing, and stabilizing in an effort to win one of three prestigious prizes.

The first accolade, that of Most Stable, went to a gingerbread volcano. However, this decision drew its fair share of controversy. Commenting on the stability of the volcano after the table-shaking test, a mildly salty Riley Bost, freshman, joked that:

“When Frau [Bequette] shook the table of graham cracker masterpieces, she did not see that the volcano had caved in, and so a travesty was born.”

However, nobody could argue the validity of the winner of the Most Creative prize. A hilarious—if mildly dark—reenactment of history, this year’s Most Creative winner was a model of Ford’s Theatre circa 1865. Complete with gummy bear actors and theatergoers, graham cracker seats, and an appropriately nervous presidential-looking gummy bear watching from the balcony, this replica of Lincoln’s assassination is unlikely to be forgotten.

This year’s Most Traditional winner was a beautiful model train. It was the longest and most intricate creation of the day, spanning two paper plates. Made up of four boxcars and sporting four pfefferminze wheels per car, the creativity, execution, and presentation exhibited by this team was as plain as the frosting they used.

Commenting on the event’s tradition and friendly atmosphere, Frau Bequette herself had the following to say about the event:

“Der Lebkuchenhauswettbewerb für die UHS-Deutschklassen ist eine beliebte Tradition seit Jahren gewesen. An diesem Tag können unsere Schüler nicht nur ihre hervorragenden Talente für Lebkuchenarchitektur zeigen, sondern auch ihre endlose Kreativität. Teilnahme an diesem Wettbewerb ist total freiwillig und findet nach der Schule statt—also ist es klar, wie viel die Schüler diese Aktivität lieben. Wir freuen uns auf nächstes Jahr!”