For many, the holiday season is a time to acknowledge traditions, and one tradition in particular has become increasingly popular in Athens: making gingerbread houses. Though it is a fun ritual across the world, it fuels southeast Ohio’s competitive, and Christmas, spirits.
Though the annual competition at the Athens County Historical Society and Museum is taking a hiatus this year, it will return in winter 2018 and will be organized by the Southeast Ohio History Center. In the past, both professional and amateur bakers have received $500 for winning replicas of Athens City and County landmarks. There are also smaller prizes in other categories, such as children and group projects.
The contest has taken place every year since 2013, and Athens resident Nancy Mingus has built a project each year to commemorate an Athens landmark.
Mingus’ first project was a replica of the Mount Zion Baptist Church, 32 W. Carpenter St., a project that she undertook because of her admiration of the stone building’s architecture.
Driving past the building one day, Mingus was so inspired by how “pretty the stone is” that she decided to base her project on that landmark.
Mingus said basing projects on Athens landmarks is a process that requires a great amount of preparation.
“For the roofs and everything I’d have to plan the angles,” Mingus said. “To make your own design is kind of like architecture in a way.”
She would visit the landmarks she’s replicating four or five times during the construction process to measure them to scale to fit on an 18- by 18-inch board.
The next two years, Mingus made “sentimental choices” about her projects.
She constructed a replica of the former Athens B & O Train Station from the 1960s because her dad was a ticket agent there when Mingus was a teenager. The next year, her project was based on the Kidwell Covered Bridge in Millfield that her father-in-law had crossed every day on his way to work at the coal mines.
While many participate in the contest to honor history, Cherie D’Mello and her family have participated in the contest multiple times and enjoy it “because it allows them to be creative,” D’Mello said.
D’Mello once made a pirate ship based on one of her favorite Japanese anime series One Piece, and her kids focused on their interests as well, constructing a gingerbread Minecraft village.
“It’s really all about having fun,” D’Mello said.
Seeing kids enjoy the competition brings Mingus great joy, and she even teaches gingerbread making workshops for kids to practice their skills so that they can eventually enter the competition.
“To see all the candy and the decorations used, and getting to build things, these kids’ eyes just light up,” Mingus said.
Mingus’ interest initially stemmed from making a gingerbread house for her grandchildren when they were young, and they were just fascinated by it.
Mingus said the event brings Athens residents closer together in a way that allows people to observe an old-fashioned source of Christmas spirit.
Many families in Athens have visited the exhibits to view those gingerbread projects, and Mingus now knows many adults and children who love gingerbread houses.
“It’s about tradition more than anything,” Mingus said.
