Living in one of our Gingerbread Homes student houses in Exeter brings an annual tasty treat. In the run-up to Christmas our tenants vie for the coveted ’Star Decorator’ crown in our annual festive gingerbread house decorating contest.
And this year is no exception – we’ve safely delivered gingerbread house kits to all our Gingerbread Homes.
It’s not compulsory to take part, it’s just a bit of fun. But we do get impressive entries coming in from several of our student houses in Exeter.
Each kit gives our tenants the gingerbread walls and roof of their house, but it’s up to them how they want to decorate it.
As well as the traditional ‘snow’ icing our festive bakers let their imaginations run free. Jelly tots, gummi bears, fruit pastilles, marshmallows, chocolate fingers and penguins all featured as decorations in 2020.
Sadly we don’t get to do an actual test taste. Tenants take photos of the creations (we even had a video sent in last year, complete with dramatic soundtrack!) and send them in to us. They then get to polish off every last gummi bear and edible penguin (no actual penguins are harmed during the creation of these gingerbread homes).
In December we share the creative results on our Instagram and Facebook feeds. The photos are a good way to capture the gingerbread houses before they are nothing but crumbs.
We then ask people to vote for their favourite on Facebook and Instgram, before rewarding the most creative tenants with a prize!
Last year’s runaway winner was ‘Duckland’ from one of our student houses in St James. Yes, you heard it right! Who knew that yellow plastic ducks could be so festive?
Take a look at some of 2020’s festive gingerbread houses. We’re looking forward to seeing what 2021’s tenants create!
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