Check out the entrants!

If you swung by yesterday, you read all about one of our favorite events of the year -- our annual neighborhood gingerbread house competition. Well, it got us thinking. This fun and spirited show of competitiveness, mad DIY skills, extreme icing piping, and candy design abilities shouldn't be limited just to the lucky few in our neighborhood, but should extend to all of our virtual neighbors here at Old Town Home!

That's right. We want to see our readers' and other bloggers' best efforts when it comes to some DIY of the baked goods and candy realm. Therefore, we're thrilled to announce Old Town Home's first (and hopefully annual) gingerbread house construction challenge.

How can you showcase your mad skills you might wonder? The rules are simple.

Rules

1. From now through Sunday, December 18 at 11:59PM EST, readers from around the globe can submit their own gingerbread house creation.
2. Gingerbread houses can be made from store-bought kits (like these Gingerbread House Kits for sale on Amazon) or baked from scratch.
3. Build and decorate your house. Use whatever you'd like as far as extras or special tools go, get creative with candy and supplies, and have a whole ton of fun doing it. The only restriction? All materials making up the house and decor must be edible.
4. Once finished, simply upload the photo of your completed candy creation to our official Gingerbread House Challenge entry page. If you'd like, include a note or story about your house and the process of building it. If you have a blog and you write about the creation of your gingerbread house/participation in the challenge, we'll gladly link back to it.
5. We'll highlight all of the entries that we receive so everyone can weigh in on their favorites.
6. On Sunday, December 18, a grand prize winner will be chosen from the submissions using random.org.

And the Winner Is...

Here's where the stakes get even higher. Not only will the winner have intense bragging rights for an entire 365 days, but will also receive a gift of $50 to spend at one of our favorite shops in Old Town Alexandria, Red Barn Mercantile. With its charming mix of old and new, complete with an impressive stock of entertaining must haves, Red Barn can be your one stop shop this holiday season.

How would you spend it? Personally we've had our eyes on the beautiful selection of mercury glass ornaments, the Brooklyn slate cheese board, and Tatine pine-scented candles. Winner to select in store or online redemption option.

Check out your competition and take a look at the houses submitted so far this year on the 2011 Gingerbread Challenge Entrants page. 

As a Thank You for Playing

Anyone who submits an entry into the competition (or who is a fan of the blog) will receive a 15% off discount at Red Barn Mercantile. Discount is good through December 31 and can be redeemed either in store by mentioning Wendy & Alex sent you, or online by entering coupon code OLDTOWNHOME at checkout.

This event will require skill, talent, and serious concentration. (As is evident from the strange face I'm making in the photo below.)

Show us what you got! Break out your power tools, gingerbread air nailers, cake decorating tips, leftover Halloween candy, and your creativity to get started. And may the best gingerbread man win.

Well, what are you waiting for? Fill out a form to enter!

If you run a blog and would like to submit an entry, we'd love it if you link back to our Gingerbread Challenge Page. For the button below, just use the code in the box.

<a href="http://www.oldtownhome.com/2011/11/18/Join-in-the-DIY-Gingerbread-House-Challenge/index.aspx" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.oldtownhome.com/img/gbbanner.png" height="150" width="150" alt="Old Town Home DIY Gingerbread Challenge"></a>