Gingerbread houses add holiday cheer, community spirit to downtown Zeeland windows

For years, City Events Coordinator Kerri VanDorp has wanted to bring a gingerbread contest to downtown Zeeland. This vision has turned out even better than she could have imagined. 

The inaugural gingerbread house competition is drawing residents into downtown Zeeland this holiday season. This serving of creativity and community collaboration, on top of other holiday traditions, is boosting foot traffic and showcasing local talent. 

Visitors can vote online for their favorite through the end of December, with the winners announced at the start of the new year.

“We did a sort of call to the artists and had people fill out applications,” says VanDorp, a 13-year employee of the city who organized the event. 

Ten people were chosen. No experience was necessary. They were all given the same house, but they could make any additions they wanted. Participants had about 12 days to complete their designs before the houses were placed in business windows throughout downtown.

One of the gingerbread houses features a Zeeland landmark.

“One of them looks like a clock tower,” VanDorp says of the houses. “So it’s fun to see the different creativity that they use.”

A dream house in pink

Yesenia Guerra is among the participants. The 33-year-old wife, mother of three, and full-time health care worker also operates a home bakery, The Pink Apron in Holland, which specializes in customer-decorated sugar cookies.

Guerra’s gingerbread house, titled “A Gingerbread Girl’s Dream House,” draws inspiration from her inner child.

“I asked myself: What would a little girl love to see while walking through a magical winter scene? Since my favorite color is pink and because the word ‘pink’ is part of my bakery’s name, I knew my house had to be entirely pink, whimsical, and full of girly charm.”

Despite her baking and decorating talents, Guerra initially hesitated to enter the competition. 

“When I realized no experience was required, I thought, ‘Why not?’'” she says. “I decided to take what I know from decorating cookies and see where that creativity could take me.”

She says the design style is inspired by Mexican Talavera patterns.

“It’s a style I love to freehand because it allows me full creative expression,” she says, adding that the response to her holiday artwork has been more than she could have asked for. “After sharing photos with friends and family, I’ve received so much love and encouragement.

Her gingerbread house is on display at Adorned Home, complemented by the shop’s Christmas tree and figurines. 

“My hope for this competition was simple: to make both children and adults feel like kids again,” she says, adding that she’s loved being part of this holiday experience. “I’ve also been inspired by the other competitors along the way. It’s truly been such a fun and rewarding experience.”

Cookies and canines

Another participant, Jennifer Letcher, joined the competition after encouragement from her 11-year-old daughter, Sophie.

Letcher, 43, is the director and administrator of the Parkview Adult Foster Care Home in downtown Zeeland. While she enjoys baking and small art projects, she says she had never made a gingerbread house before.

“Sophie was confident that we could create something together that wouldn’t collapse in on itself,” she says with a laugh.

Their entry, “Wolfhound Wonderland,” is inspired by borzoi dogs, also known as Russian wolfhounds.

“I have had borzois for over 22 years, and I can’t imagine my home without at least one or two of these wonderful dogs,” says Letcher, who currently has two dogs, Mochi and Nimbus. Nimbus is a certified pet therapy dog that helps at Holland Hospital, the Ottawa County Fillmore Complex, and Appledorn.

The mother-daughter team experimented with techniques. One was a wet-on-wet ice method using turquoise icing with white swirls. Trees surrounding the house were made from sugar cones and covered in icing.

“We decorated some sugar cookies made with a borzoi cookie cutter at first, but thought that these wouldn’t hold up well,” she says, adding, “We ate the cookies. We couldn’t let them go to waste.”

They found the right effect when they made some new borzois with baked cinnamon applesauce.

Van Dorp says the diversity of the participants, who ranged from students to adults, is part of what makes this year’s competition so special.

She’s already thinking about taking the competition to the next level in 2026. 

“We feel like it has good potential to expand in future years,” she says.