Can you build a better gingerbread house?

It's December so gingerbread house decorating is easy to find in seasonal magazines and televised baking shows. Constructing them can be difficult and the best ones stand out because of their creator's use of candy, icing and sprinkles.

Now the decorating skills of Niwot's community are being put to the test with the return of Niwot's annual Gingerbread House Decorating Contest.

Local realtor Deborah Reed Fowler, of DRF Real Estate LLC, Colorado Landmark Realtors, created the contest last year as a COVID-safe, virtual way for families to enjoy a holiday activity. This year, she's organized it again with an in-person judging event at The Wheel House.

The contest is open to as many as 50 decorators, who can register at any time on the Niwot Business Association's website at niwot.com/events/gingerbread-house-decorating-competition. Contestants can pick up their entry materials at Fowler's offices on 2nd Avenue on Dec. 11. Finished houses need to be at Niwot Wheel Works at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Dec. 12, for judging.

Entries will be judged in three standards: most creative decoration, most unusual decoration, and best use of candies. Prizes for winners include a $100 gift certificate to Farow restaurant, a $75 gift certificate to 1914 House, and a $50 gift certificate to Pinnochios.

The contest will be judged by Joan Grunzweig, owner of local business Joan's Petite Sweets and a two-time award recipient in Good Housekeeping's National Gingerbread House Decorating contest.

Grunzweig is passionate about gingerbread house decorating and excited for the contest. In addition to serving as a judge, she's providing assembled house structures and frosting. All contestants need to worry about is decorations.

She spoke to The Courier in the middle of baking the walls and roofs. While kitchen timer bells reminded her to remove house pieces from the oven, she shared her own experience in national contests.

"I think a lot of it is that people who make gingerbread houses like to put on just a whole bunch of candy. To try to make it look like a CandyLand kind of thing," she said. "When I do the houses, I try to make them look like a miniature version of an actual house. I will include detailed benches or columns in a huge home. Doing something like that, it does make you stand out. It may be why I got noticed."

Grunzweig was both forthcoming and appropriately sweet when asked for advice for this year's contestants.

"My hope would be that families that picked up a house to decorate, that it would just help to enhance their family's enjoyment of the holidays, that it would bring them together, something they're proud of."