I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that building gingerbread houses has been the “it” thing of the 2020 holiday season.
Whether amongst friends, family, or coworkers, this year I have been propositioned to build a gingerbread house more times than I legitimately thought possible. Seemingly everyone and their mother wants to get in on the design challenge fun. Who knew crafting with edible Legos could be so alluringly popular[1]?
Eager to partake in the Christmas craze, I recently joined a gingerbread house decorating contest hosted by my larger team at Target. “In a year that’s been anything but cookie-cutter,” my colleagues and I were invited to try something new and celebrate the season by sharing a moment of team connection while working remotely. The guidelines were simple: Build a gingerbread house, decorate it, and submit a photo for team voting. The winner would earn bragging rights for a year, and the team couldn’t “wait to see what you crumb up with!”
Needless to say, I was in. Mere seconds after receiving the invite I was already scheming of how I would bring my cookie creation to life.
Full disclosure: I have never, until this year, built a gingerbread house, so the bar was simultaneously set embarrassingly low and stupidly high. I desperately scrolled the Internet for sparks of inspiration and took several “brainstorming walks[2]” during which I hoped a contest-winning plan would magically reveal itself.
From the get-go I knew I wanted to design something Target-themed; after all, who can resist the hypnotic power of Tar-Zhay[3]? I had grand visions of creating my own storefront, complete with red carts, shopping baskets, and even a mini in-house Starbucks. I would use red gum drops to recreate the circular cement posts that dot the majority of store entrances, and I’d find as many opportunities as possible to incorporate Target’s furry four-legged mascot, Bullseye. Taking a bit of a creative departure from real-life[4], I also thought it would be fun to try my hand at replicating the decorative holiday windows you typically encounter at a larger department store such as Macy’s or Nordstrom. I would use Target gift cards to bring this idea to life and pipe icing around the rectangles to achieve a more complete, polished effect. In seemingly no time at all my mental gingerbread house had manifested itself, and I was ready to assemble my shopping list, gather my supplies, and hit the ground running.
Visions of sugarplums danced in my head, and when everything was said and done, I obtained the following ingredients to bring my holiday decorating dreams to life: One gingerbread house kit (complete with pre-made cookie parts, icing, and a handful of decorative candy elements), a pack of Pull’n’Peel Twizzlers, two sets of “Bullseye & His Tree” sugar figurines sets, a pre-decorated Bullseye sugar cookie, extra icing, and a whole bunch of gift cards. Now, it was time to get building!
This may not come as a surprise, but constructing a gingerbread house is harder than it looks[5]. Icing isn’t nearly as binding as one might hope, and it’s messy in a way I never expected possible[6]. I diligently worked to pipe, frost, and secure my gingerbread fortress, and yet still my walls insisted to come crumbling down. This happened one too many times until I decided something—besides my structure—had to give. I grabbed the weights from the spin bike and used them to secure the four walls so they could successfully solidify overnight without incident. And it worked! As Cam proudly stated, this is “the house that Peloton built.”
Once I had stabilized construction, it was time to indulge in the fun part: Decorating! I began by building my shopping cart. First, I cut down a small cardboard box I had planned to recycle so that it resembled a rectangular shape and frosted its edges with extra icing. Then, I methodically cut Twizzlers and stuck them to the surface of the structure, creating a red textured effect for the cart’s exterior. I did this on all four sides before breaking apart a smaller strand of Twizzlers to repurpose as the cart’s handle. Next, I cut small Target logos from the packaging that came with the gift cards to fasten to the cart’s sides as easy company branding. Finally, I completed my candy creation by affixing peppermints to form festive holiday wheels so my structure could effortlessly “glide” around the store. All in, the cart was a bit of a production (and, if I’m being honest, an absolute frosting massacre at times), but I was very pleased with the end result. Inspired, I adapted a slightly modified, much less complicated approach to build a miniature shopping basket. Needless to say, when I finished there was a festive amount of Christmas, Target, and “violet red” everywhere you looked.
Once I had completed my shopping “accessories” I transitioned to beautifying the storefront itself. I used miniature candies to build cheerful holiday wreathes, icing and colored sugar to craft festive strings of lights, and gumdrops to playfully line the chimney, making the store welcome for both Santa and Target guests alike.
When everything was said and done, my gingerbread house-turned Target store was complete with a shopping cart, basket, decorative holiday display windows (aka gift cards), a nod to the company’s Minnesota heritage, and plenty of representation from Bullseye. …Can you tell I had fun making this?
They say life is about the journey, not the destination, and while I clearly enjoyed my jaunt down Santa Claus Lane[7], let’s make one thing abundantly clear: I was in this competition to win this competition. Voting began today, and with 24 total team entries I’m eagerly awaiting the winning announcement scheduled to be made early next week. From an internally lit pretzel log cabin to an outdoorsy vacation camper to a Vikings-themed mancave, I have to say my team members have really outdone themselves. And yet… I’m crossing all my gingerbread finger and toes that my little Tar-zhay store comes out on top!
Regardless of the outcome, it’s safe to say participating in this virtual gingerbread decorating contest added both joy and cheer to what has otherwise been an untraditional holiday season. Even though we are working remotely, this contest created a feeling of camaraderie, togetherness, and good-old-fashioned competition that fueled a larger sense of community and inclusivity. I couldn’t be more grateful to be part of such a creative, fun-loving, human-centered team.
True, this year has been “anything but cookie-cutter,” but that doesn’t mean we can’t chart our own paths, choose our own adventures, and envision alternate ways of being. That doesn’t mean we can’t intentionally embrace creativity, lose ourselves in childish wonder, and create our own slice of magic to share with others.
Afterall, this hopeful approach to life never goes out of style.
‘Tis always the season.
[1] 2020 knew: That’s who knew.
[2] Because, you know, I’m creative like that. (Insert hair flip emoji here.)
[3] I go in for toilet paper and walk out with 500 candles, an assortment of pretty notebooks for the journaling practice I will never actually take up, and the new entire product line from the Hearth & Hand with Magnolia collection… I’m telling you, Target is both a scary and magical place.
[4] As one does…
[5] We’ve already established this was my first time, okay? Let’s just say the learning curve was steep.
[6] I mean, really, how do you get frosting in your hair without actually touching your hair? I never cease to amaze myself…
[7] Kudos if you understand this Hilary Duff reference. I see you also listened to a crap-ton of Radio Disney, my fellow 90s kid!
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