Photo Provided Lafayette Hotel staff created a gingerbread house to go along with their Thanksgiving dinner Nov. 23. Entries for the hotel’s gingerbread house competition will be accepted Nov. 30 from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Staff Reports

The Lafayette Hotel is bringing back its gingerbread house competition after a long hiatus, the hotel announced via press release Tuesday.

Entries will be accepted from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Rufus Putnam Room.

Submissions must include a completed entry form, which can be picked up at the hotel’s front desk. A panel of three judges will evaluate each creation on originality, creativity, pastry work and attention to detail.

The contest will include three categories: youth–ages 9-14; adult — ages 15 and up; and company sponsored — created by employees of a local business.

First, second, and third place will be awarded in each category. Only the top three winners will be displayed in the Lafayette Hotel lobby until Jan. 1.

Winners will be notified on Dec. 5. Any non-placing creations can be picked Dec. 5-10. After that, any unclaimed entries will be discarded.

Sheila Rhodes, the hotel’s general manager, said she is pleased the contest is returning after approximately a decade.

“This event is a wonderful opportunity to establish a family tradition of either making a gingerbread house together or coming to the hotel to see all the imaginative creations,” she said. “The hotel has created a Gingerbread Village for many years in the past, with some exceptional creations. After a long hiatus, we’re bringing back the tradition.”

The contest is open to the public, except Lafayette Hotel employees and their families.

Rhodes said she would like to make the contest an annual event going forward.

“We are very pleased to have had such a good response in the past and look forward to growing this event into something special for the Historic River Cities,” she said. “This will be both a fun time and an attraction for visitors to our community.”