It’s the 5th anniversary!

My friend Lorella hosts a gingerbread house competition every year. And every year, we post the photos here at LaineyGossip for the People’s vote. The gingerbread houses are put together over the course of one night at one location. It’s a live competition. They all start out with the same store-bought kit. Everything used to construct the gingerbread houses must be edible – except for the cardboard base. Not even a toothpick is allowed. And you can’t go to the store and buy a marzipan reindeer. You see the Snoopy? Snoopy was made on the spot, not in advance.

This year, since it’s such a milestone, a celebrity judge was invited to preside over the proceedings – Yolanda Gampp of How To Cake It. Hundreds of thousands of people have watched her videos on YouTube. Every time I watch one of her videos I’m amazed at what she can put together. Click here to see her make a BB-8 cake. Ridiculous. Also, what did I tell you about that little famewhore, BB-8?!

Anyway, Yolanda has made her selection. But the People must speak – that’s you! See below for the all the gingerbread houses and email your votes to [email protected] with the house # of your vote in the title. One photo of each house appears with the description and the rest of the angles are below the post in a series. 

House #1: Candyland Cottage

Tiled with painstakingly sliced soft candies and has Christmas candy corn lining the ridge of its roof. Inspired by the candy-covered cottage from Hansel & Gretel, this entry was built almost twice as high as the standard gingerbread house kits.

House #2: Colonial Christmas

Over 5 gingerbread kits were used to achieve its impressive scale. Each panel was first covered in white fondant before being piped with precise white on white details and festive greenery. The walls were then raised and decorated with a Christmas tree, tiny snowflakes, and sugar cube chimney and some telltale tracks. Candy stick columns support the front and rear porticos. A happy little snowman hangs out on the back porch.

House #3: A Charlie Brown Christmas

Snoopy hangs out atop his liquorice-log dog house with tiny Woodstock perched on his belly, while Charlie Brown admires his sad little Christmas tree. Each character was formed out of Rice Krispie treats and covered in fondant. The ornament that toppled Charlie Brown's pretzel and rosemary tree is a sour gumball, while Linus's little blue blanket is made of rolled fondant. Snoopy's Christmas lights are peanut M&Ms on a black liquorice string.

House #4: Happy Holland-Days

This festive windmill was made out of a combination of standard gingerbread house kits and a gingerbread train kit. The arms are made of wafer tubes and pretzels. The urns out front are sour gumball-topped peanut butter cups, and the path to the biscuit door is made of candy coated chocolate rocks, while yogurt covered pretzels form the little white fence. The window boxes hold piped icing poinsettias and the windows are "lit" with candy-coated sunflower seeds. The upper level of the windmill is decorated with gummy ring wreaths, accented with tiny holly leaves.

Thanks for voting!

And for previous years, click here for Year 1, click here for Year 2, click here for Year 3, and click here for Year 4.