Sweet displays in Hill City

By: 
Leslie Silverman
Gingerbread houses have taken over Hill City. Eleven businesses around town are displaying homemade gingerbread houses in an effort to win bragging rights and a chance for some free advertising at the Visitor Information Center.
The Gingerbread House Magic Decorating Contest is a recycling of sorts, sponsored by the Hill City Chamber of Commerce. 
“We resurrected the notion of this  gingerbread ‘walk’ or ‘display’ in Hill City because, for the past few years, we really wanted to encourage a Gingerbread House Cruise or Walk around town that would be a great promotion for Hill City, be fun for our businesses, drive traffic to their stores  and increase holiday sales,” said Hill City Chamber of Commerce director Janet Wetovick-Bily.
According to Wetovick-Bily, gingerbread houses were once created and displayed in Hill City.
“Now seemed to be the right time to bring them back, and we did,” she said.
Wetovick-Bily is delighted that so many businesses have gotten into the holiday spirit and participated in the contest.
“We were delighted that the chamber had such an enthusiastic response to this holiday challenge.  Children, youth and adults all got a chance to participate and we know from comments we received that there will be many more gingerbread houses and magic next year in Hill City.” she said. “We are just delighted and thrilled at the response we’ve had, both from our members and from the public.”
The enthusiasm and participation in the event is nothing short of spectacular. Krull’s Market built an entire Hill City village, displaying notable places like The 1880 Train depot. Some businesses, like Mountain Meadow Resort at Deerfield Lake captured their own uniqueness. Their gingerbread campground comes complete with a pretzel fire pit. Wetovick-Bily enjoys seeing the interpretations and creativity and appreciates the “hours of time the builders of the displays invested in their creation.” 
Some houses were created by first time house builders, like Kelly Feddersen of The Boxcar Eats and Treats, who said the toughest part was trying to get the dimensions right to put it together. She also struggled with the icing, which she first tried to make at home before opting for a cupcake icing.  
“Cupcake icing was firmer and helped to make the walls stay.” Feddersen, who admits she kind of “winged it,” put together a bigger house which, as she was creating it, reminded her of the Catholic churches she had seen in Denver. After getting the OK from her boss, she added a cross and took her house to the church level. 
Black Hills artist Sam Uttecht Heltibridle is also a first time gingerbread house creator. She created the home on behalf of  ArtForms Gallery, where it is displayed.
“I decided that a more rustic style would fit the gallery better than a traditional candy-covered one. So a cabin in the woods came to mind, with an outhouse for some humor and the animals to add a bit of a whimsy,” she said. Her rustic cabin comes complete with woodland and not so woodland animals and is meticulously crafted.
“I think the hardest part might have been figuring out the dimensions for construction of the cabin based on the pretzel rods. I ended up sketching out a blueprint to figure out the length and width of the walls, how to accommodate for the windows and door, and how many pretzel rods I needed of each length. I should also say that cutting the pretzel rods to length without breaking them was tricky,” she said.
Uttecht Heltibridle built the house over the course of two days, including sketch and dry time. 
Turtle Town has been creating a gingerbread house for several years, says Alexis Christenson, who helped make this year’s display. She said the secret is to make sure the frosting is stiff.
“It makes the best glue,” she said.
Like others, she learned from the internet how to turn melted Jolly Ranchers into windows. Christenson says that repetitive patterns can help make everything look clean.
“It starts to look more intentional and less accidental,” she said.
She estimates that it took her and her house building partner 24 hours all together to make their display, which was inspired by the Hansel and Gretel house. 
The Gingerbread House Magic Decorating Contest officially ends Dec. 17 with winners being announced Dec 18. Besides winning the title of best overall gingerbread house, the winning business receives a certificate, $100 in Chamber Bucks and a 1x2 display for one year.
 

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