Seasonal & Holidays

Gingerbread House Gallery: Check Out Illinois' Contest Entries

We asked and you delivered, big time: Here are the Illinois entries in Patch's gingerbread house decorating contest.

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Shannon Antinori, Patch StaffVerified Patch Staff Badge
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Illinois Patch readers poured their hearts, souls and lots of candy and icing into their festive gingerbread house creations.
Illinois Patch readers poured their hearts, souls and lots of candy and icing into their festive gingerbread house creations. (Courtesy of Liz Schissler)

ILLINOIS — 'Tis the season to spread some cheer, and Illinois Patch readers have shown they've got plenty of holiday spirit. More than two dozen of you submitted entries in Patch's gingerbread house contest, showing off your talent, skills and a little bit of whimsy.

From a Hanukkah house to a house with a heavy metal twist to a house inspired by Disney/Pixar's "Up," these sweet treats are festive, creative and fun — just what we needed at this time of year.

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Charmaine Bretz of Naperville, "The spirit of Christmas"
Nancy McGuire of Illinois: "Making Gingerbread houses every year is our family tradition. I bake gingerbread pieces all week so we can all make our houses. We all have so much fun making the houses and of course eating the candy as we go along."
Rochelle Villegas of Joliet shared this photo of 4-year-old Oliver decorating his gingerbread choo-choo.
Elizabeth Lupetini of Western Springs shared this gingerbread creation she said is "from a kit, but inspired by the tropics! My children Caroline and Robert are very creative and patient."
Monica Caster of Elmhurst said she made the frame from cardboard and added candies using powdered sugar paste.
Meagan Crandall of Frankfort said she bought several store kits and combined them to make this creation.
Nancy Mrozek of Oak Forest said this gingerbread house was made with love.
Michael Murray of New Lenox said his wife and daughter decorate a gingerbread house every year.
Jessica Petrow of Frankfort said she hosts an annual gingerbread house decorating contest, writing, "This is my winning gingerbread house in honor of all the barns that are special to our history and charm here in Frankfort."
Liz Schissler of Palos used pretzel logs, Hershey chocolate bars, peanuts and Golden Grahams to create this house.
Annemarie Mucha of Frankfort made this with frosting, candy, gingerbread and lots of love.
Morgan M of Frankfort tried to add their own twist.
Marlee M of Frankfort said, "I just went with the flow."
Billy Mucha of Frankfort made this "with a heavy metal twist!"
Betty Hruska of Palos Park said: "I created a pattern, baked the gingerbread. I used crushed butterscotch candies, melted in the oven, for the many windows. I flooded the 4 sides with a light green royal frosting, used cookies for the roof. I assembled the 21 inch house and added a string of Christmas lights on the inside. I finished the house with the 2 story shredded wheat chimney."
Anne Wilke of New Lenox said, "We used boxes, cookies, candy, frosting, twigs, glue and our imaginations to build a life size gingerbread house. It’s filled with our stuffed animals, little tree and lights."
Eddie Furman of Arlington Heights said he "wanted it to look very Christmas-y."
"I wanted to make it very pretty," Emily Furman of Arlington Heights said.
Jayjay Furman said, "I kind of went overboard and squeezed frosting all over the top!"
Jennifer French of Joliet said she used pretzel logs and graham crackers. "I did not want to make a traditional gingerbread house from a kit. I had no instructions, I just built as I went."
Beth Obrochta of Bolingbrook said her family has an annual tradition of making a gingerbread house from scratch. "This year was a castle theme with our favorite candies and royal icing for glue."
Sophie Chow of Naperville said this creation was the result of a pantry clean-out: "An endearing gingerbread house made out of orphaned material left in the pantry."
Tessa Chow of Naperville called this one “Sunday Comics," "Inspired by all of the carefree Sundays, still in our PJs having breakfast and reading the comics with mom and dad."
Megan Jones of Grayslake said this was made by her 6-year-old and called it "happy land townhouses."
Donna Greenberg of Northbrook and her family used a kit to make this Hannukah house with a balcony, so the gummy bears could view the snow.
Made by Hannah, Clara and Mila Wiese of Bolingbrook.
Margarita Reyes Torres of Joliet made this gingerbread house and reindeer with her sister. "We bought the house and reindeer kit at five below and used it as our base while we used mostly our own materials like Christmas Hershey chocolates, sprinkled and colored candy melts we already had. Our theme we tried to stick with is from the movie 'UP' since it’s our favorite movie," she said.
Karen Smith, a Channahon-Minooka Patch reader, made this out of gingerbread, icing and candies.

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