The sweet taste of victory: Pueblo parks department wins gingerbread contest for 2nd year

In the buildup to Christmas last month, a team of people built a decorative TV and crafted a diorama featuring iconic moments from "A Charlie Brown Christmas," including the demure all-natural Christmas tree, Snoopy’s decorated doghouse and a twinkling background of stars.

Most of the display was technically edible.

The decorated gingerbread television won the top prize for the Pueblo Parks and Recreation department in Pueblo’s third annual gingerbread contest, in which the department defended its title and won the contest for the second year in a row.

City departments compete against each other to craft the best gingerbread house. Here’s how some of the best displays were crafted and how the contest brings people together.

How departments participate in the contest

The mayor’s office has put forth an annual gingerbread house contest for the past three years with a different theme every year.

This year’s theme was Christmas movies, which elicited submissions from well-known favorites such as "The Polar Express" and more obscure deep cuts, such as "A Smoky Mountain Christmas," the 1986 TV movie featuring Dolly Parton.

The contest was judged by Mayor Nick Gradisar as well as a member of the mayor’s youth council. Participants were asked to include a specific item in all of their displays so Gradisar could try to guess the common hidden element.

The mayor did not figure out that all of the displays included a bicycle, in honor of a brand-new bike that he just got this year. But last year, he did figure out the incognito goat featured in the displays to pay homage to the goat ordinance passed by city council last year.

Besides a regulation on the size of the display — it needs to fit within a 2-foot cube — participants are allowed to do whatever they’d like to craft their holiday displays.

The prize for the winning department is a catered lunch party as well as a traveling trophy.

How parks and rec defended its title

The elaborate Charlie Brown Christmas display inside the gingerbread television was crafted by a team of people who work in the city’s parks and recreation department.

The department’s graphic designer, Kayla Alire, worked on planning and baking the main structure for the television display, a process that took weeks to chart out.

Alire baked up a special recipe of culinary-grade gingerbread, which is formulated to be stronger for constructing. Her colleagues in the department helped craft some of the decorations inside. The figurines of Charlie Brown and Snoopy were melded from fondant with special-ordered cookie cutters and colored by hand. Strips of green sour candy and mini pretzels combined to form the iconic modest Christmas tree.

“A lot of planning and thought process went into every element to make sure everything worked,” Alire said.

Most of the house, with the exception of hot glue and lights, was put together from edible items, which Alire thinks helped elevate the department’s entry. Also, the freestanding structure helped their entry stand out when most of the other teams used a 2x2 platform.

“Seeing our gingerbread vision come to life was a magical experience! My coworkers are an amazing, creative group with a positive vibe,” said parks and rec office assistant Lisa Sonnenfeld in an email.

Alire said the different departments are competitive — and secretive — with each other about their entries.

Her sister works in the public works department, which also had a Charlie Brown-themed entry this year. Alire said that people were wondering if either of them had spilled the beans, but “we promise each other every year we're not going to say anything to each other about our teams," Sonnenfeld said.

Alire said that the intensity and complexity of gingerbread houses have increased over the past few years. To defend the departmental title next year, she said they will likely continue using as many edible decorations and elements as possible, as well as incorporating more interactive elements.

The runner ups will be trying for the win next year

There are just five people who work in the city department of housing and citizen services and all of them contributed in some way to their entry this year, which was inspired by the 1964 film "Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

For Lexi Romero Stewart, who has only worked in the department since August, the contest was an opportunity to bond with her coworkers.

“They've opened (up to) me with open arms. … You start to get to know each other professionally, but then also personally. It's a cool team building exercise,” Romero Stewart said.

Beth Mauro added that figuring out how to incorporate edible elements is a fun part of the process — and something that the team prioritized. Mauro suggested that the rules should be modified to require more edible elements in the gingerbread designs.

At Taffy’s, the sweets shop in Mesa Junction, the housing and citizen services department bought candy bricks that make up the walkway, some chocolate rocks and white cotton candy for snowy fluff.

Romero Stewart made the centerpiece lake from sugar and corn syrup, using a technique she found on TikTok.

One of the biggest challenges they encountered was placing Rudolph’s light-up nose. The team ended up heating up the sugar lake to get a hole through it, which worked after doing a test patch.

“We hoped for the best and it worked out better than we thought,” Mauro said.

Everyone in the office helped contribute in some way to the gingerbread display, from brainstorming decorations to incorporating technical elements.

“We’re a small team, but a mighty team — and everybody just put in as much effort as we could,” Romero Stewart said.

The team is looking forward to next year, when they will be aiming for first place.

“Even if we did get second, we're very proud of our display — and we are coming for that win next year,” Romero Stewart said.

Anna Lynn Winfrey is a reporter at the Pueblo Chieftain. She can be reached at awinfrey@gannett.com. Please support local news at subscribe.chieftain.com.

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo city departments compete in annual gingerbread house contest