The Gingerbread Event, sponsored by Sleeper’s, was held for the first time ever at the new Caribou Wellness and Recreation Center.
“Holding this in the new Recreation Center and seeing it all decorated ranks up there as one of the favorite moments of organizing the event,” David Sleeper said.
Sleeper’s first started holding the gingerbread decorating extravaganza in 1989, but stopped in 2004 when they no longer had anyone to bake the houses.
Enter Barb Aiken and a team of about 15 volunteers who helped ice together over 200 gingerbread houses and coordinate the event. Just about 200 pounds of candy, 200 pounds of frosting, and 30 triple batches of gingerbread went into the successful evening, though many youths forgot all about the gingerbread houses when Santa walked into the gym.
While the beloved event is always a welcome holiday activity in Caribou, the origin of the confectionery craze stems from New Hampshire — Saint Anselm College, to be specific — where Dave’s wife went to school.
The pair brought the idea back to Caribou and started the first year with 75 gingerbread houses that were decorated in the back of the store.
“It outgrew the store, so the Rec Department suggested that we use their facilities,” David said, mentioning that it’s been a wonderful partnership. “They’ve done a lot of the decorating, cleanup and the setup.”
Preparation for the event started in October with mixing the dough and freezing it. It took three days utilizing multiple ovens to bake each piece of gingerbread, and almost as long to assemble the structures at their temporary home in the rec. center.
One by one, the houses were distributed for free to the children for creation (and snacking).
“We just want to see it is something that is fun for the family,” Sleeper said. “You’ll see grandparents and parents with their kids and it’s really a nice time,” he added, mentioning how some students who go off to college still remember their days of rolling up their sleeves to make the perfect gingerbread house.
Adia Greer, 9, may not be in college yet, but she did have on a T-shirt that said “future Harvard freshman.” Her gingerbread house was one of many well-planned houses that would make a wonderful centerpiece that could quickly be turned into desert.
According to Greer, the trick to making a good gingerbread house is to figure out your concept, and then determine how you can best use the materials provided to build what you want. “I just looked at my materials and then thought about what I could build with them,” she said, showing how she planned on attaching a circular cookie to four pretzel legs to make the start of a reindeer on top of the roof.
“The most important step for me is mostly trying to figure out what you’re going to do and where you’re going to put it,” Greer added.
Colin Poitras, 5, wasn’t as concerned about the design, though he was certainly having a fun time decorating his gingerbread house with the help of his mom, Jennifer.
“My favorite part of putting together a gingerbread house is eating it,” Colin said.
Having Christmas spirit and eating it, too
CARIBOU, Maine — ‘Twas 21 days before Christmas, and all through the rec, children left pounds of candy uneaten — what the heck? It’s true, over 200 children overcame (mostly) the desire to eat handfuls of candy and globs of sticky-sweet frosting; instead, the youths utilized most of their confectionery treats to build a whole city’s worth of gingerbread houses with all sorts of patterns, shapes and designs.
