Friends and families in the community can craft their own gingerbread house during the Christmas in the Heart of Charleston festival Saturday. 

The Charleston Parks and Recreation department is hosting a gingerbread house construction contest and is accepting entries through Friday. 

All entries will be on display in the window front of Ealy’s Appraisal at the corner of Seventh Street and Jackson Avenue.  

The house will be on display beginning Friday until Jan. 2 unless participants decide to take them home sooner.

Diane Ratliff, tourism and special events coordinator, said participants must pre-register by completing a free entry and returning it to the Parks and Recreation office.  

Entries can be dropped off directly at Ealy’s Appraisal between 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. on Friday. 

“We don’t actually see the entries before they are on display,” Ratliff said. “We don’t want to worry about transportation and the risk of something breaking so we just have them turn them in there.”

Ratliff said she is not sure when the contest began, but she has organized it since the city began helping with the festival about five years ago.

“I have some people that have been participating in it for the past 10 years,” Ratliff said. “They come back year after year whether they win or lose, just because they enjoy doing it.”

There are three separate categories within the contest.

The categories include youth for participants 14 and younger, adult for participants 16 and older and family, which is for families to participate as a group. 

The first place winner in each category will receive an award to be displayed with the project and a cash prize.

“It is something fun for families to do together,” Ratliff said. 

“Kids like playing with candy and icing, while the adults like the challenge,” she said.

Ratliff said the contest rules are an added challenge. 

All gingerbread must be handmade, and all supports of the structure must be edible. 

She said that means contestants could not just glue the gingerbread to a piece of cardboard.  

The structure must stand up in its own and, in the past, some participants have used pretzel rods to support their structures.

“One year, we had a woman who came in with her house and was on her third roof,” Ratliff said. 

“It made it through the judging but was pushing on the sides of the house so we had to take it off,” she said.

The projects are judged on three categories: structural support, creativity and cohesiveness (how well the whole project fits together aesthetically).

The cohesiveness of the project can be based on how the structure fits with the landscape design that accompanies it or if there is a light inside to illuminate the structure.

“We have even had a person put an SUV in a little rocky driveway,” Ratliff said.

The judging for the contest begins at 2 p.m. Saturday, and the awards will be on display by the time the festival opens at 5 p.m.

Amy Wywialowski can be reached at 581-2812 or alwywialowski@eiu.edu