Gingerbread House Contest & Exhibition Opens Black Friday at 10am!
The houses just get more impressive every year! We’ve got churches, ski slopes, Georgian homes, Victorian castles, a dog house, a stage, two sugar shacks, a sledding hill, the abode of a Disney princess, and even an Instagrammable plate of pasta!
Open, free to the public, 10am to 5pm, November 26 to December 23!
Vintage Christmas Kickoff December 3, 5:30 to 8pm
We’ll be launching the holiday season with a few words of thanks and the awarding of our community judges’ ribbons!
Join us Friday, December 3rd from 5:30-8pm to celebrate the season!
For large, in-person gatherings, we are requiring adults to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from the past 48 hours. We will not be requiring proof of vaccination for children. Everyone is required to wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status.
Downtown Scavenger Hunt
You can join in the fun and support local businesses! Pick up a stamp sheet at 10 Middle Street or at any of our retail partners, or download one here. Collect stamps from 15 of the 18 locations, and turn in your stamp sheet for a chance to win a prize!
To-Go Activity for Kids!
We’ve put together a brown-bag craft for kids, available starting Saturday mornings until we run out!
The kits include everything you’ll need to make a popsicle stick snowflake ornament! Just ask at the front desk.
It’s that time again! Join us at Portsmouth Historical Society as we celebrate this sweet season with the 31st Annual Gingerbread House Contest and Exhibition from November 26 through December 22 at the Portsmouth Historical Society’s Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center. Once again, everyone is getting a little sugar as we take the contestant creations to downtown shop windows!
This year’s theme is our favorite New Hampshire things to go along with our photography exhibition, “NH Now: A Photographic Diary of Life in the Granite State.” So many of you took up the challenge! From your favorite landmarks to your favorite meal, the creative ways in which New Hampshire is represented in cookies and candy is just amazing!
Judges Awards
There were so many amazing entries this year that we do not envy the judges’ job at deciding who was the best. We are so grateful to these folks for their hard work!
Built in 1913-14 by industrialist Thomas Plant and his wife Olive, Castle in the Clouds is an Arts and Crafts mansion in the Ossippee Mountains near Moultonborough, NH. Restored and cared for by the Castle Preservation Society, it is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is open to the public.
At the mouth of the Piscataqua River in Kittery Point, Maine, the Wood Island Life Saving Station has stood watch for 112 years. It housed brave “surfmen” that were part of the US Life Saving Service (a forerunner of the US Coast Guard) who would wait with small rowing boats to go out to help mariners in distress in terrible conditions year-round. The Wood Island Life Saving Station Association (WILSSA) formed in 2011 to oppose the station’s demolition and to raise all of the funds and find expertise to undertake a historically accurate restoration.
Multi-Generational Category
The winner is the Johnson Family’s Reindeer Spa Day
The multi-generational category, with adults, teens, and children working together, is always full of imagination!
Honorable mention goes to Lindsey & Brooklyn Barnhorst for their Christmas Cape
Teen Category
So many teen participants this year!
Arianna Incollingo & Frank Krupp came back to Portsmouth Historical Society *three times* after dropping off their creation, called The Holiday Connection in order to perfect the finishing touches!
Natalie, Rachel, Amirah Little’s fanciful Searles Castle gets an honorable mention for all the details!
Edward Francis Searles hired architect Henry Vaughan to design Searles Castle. It is built of cut granite, fieldstone, and dark red sandstone, most of which came from Searles’ own quarries in Pelham, New Hampshire. Completed in 1915, the castle consists of an entrance, a reception hall, a foyer, a dining room, a music room, a sun porch, a library, a grand stairway, a second-floor guest suite, a third-floor guest suite, a second-floor rotunda (or balcony), servants’ rooms, a kitchen, a butler’s pantry, butlers’ rooms, and a master bedroom suite which consists of a master bedroom, a sitting room, a bathroom, and a sunroom. Examples of the fine workmanship are found in the carved oak balcony and the marble fireplaces.
Youth Category
Ellie Ordman’s Story Land is our winner with three fantastic stories
The goal for our 12-and-under category is always to have fun, and these winners certainly had a good time at Story Land and on their summer vacation!
Abbey Menard’s Summer Vacation gets an honorable mention!
Honorable mention goes to Prescott Park’sYou’re a Good Man Charlie Brown!
Professional Category
Bobby Menard’s Tangled takes the professional category – and would certainly take the height category if we were giving out ribbons for that!
Jackie van Berlo’s 100% vegan Birds of a Feather for the honorable mention in the professional category
Judges’ Best in Show
Unsurprisingly, we have a TIE for Best in Show as well! AND! you can get a raffle ticket for just $1 and take one of these houses home for a holiday centerpiece!
Lindsay Carroll’s Castle in the Clouds
Jackie van Berlo’s Birds of a Feather
People’s Choice Awards
Your voice has been heard! Here are this year’s People’s Choice winners!
Most Attention to Detail
Lindsay Carroll’s Castle in the Clouds
Most Whimsical
The Johnson Family’s Reindeer Spa Day
Most Creative Building Materials
Jackie van Berlo’s Birds of a Feather
Best Downtown
Melissa Kutsch’s Enchanted Holiday Cottage
People’s Best in Show
Positively stealing the show with FOUR ribbons is Lindsay Carroll’s Castle in the Clouds, this year’s winner of BOTH Best in Show ribbons!
Raffle
There are four fabulous houses up for grabs in our raffle! Get a ticket for $1 and you could take one of these houses home for a holiday centerpiece!
Downtown Scavenger Hunt
Pick up a stamp sheet at the Discover Portsmouth Welcome Center, at one of our downtown retail partner locations, or download here!
Visit each of the locations and get a stamp!
Collect 15 of 18 stamps and submit your sheet for a chance to win a prize from one of our partners!
RSVP not required for this event, but please come prepared with a mask and your vaccination card or a negative COVID test from the past 48 hours.
Gingerbread Houses Arrive this Weekend!
Gingerbread is coming soon! We’ll be breaking out the decorations this weekend!
We’ll be accepting drop-offs of your fabulous frosted fabrications
Saturday & Sunday November 20th & 21st 10am to 5pm
The exhibition will open to the public on Friday, November 26th!
We’ve got your gifts covered.
If you’re worried about where to get what you’ll need for the holidays, start downtown! The Discover Portsmouth Museum Shop has something for everybody on your list!
Chef James Haller will be here to give a brief presentation and to sign his new book, At the End of Ceres Street: A Chef’s Salute to Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Thursday, November 18th, from 5:30 pm to 7pm. Come meet the man himself and get your copy of the book signed by the author!
Please note that masks are required for everyone at Portsmouth Historical Society. For large, in-person events such as these, we request all guests provide either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test from the last 48 hours.
Join us for a free gallery tour with the abstract painters of “Abstracting the Seacoast!” This Friday from 12:00 to 12:30, Dustan Knight and Peter Cady will be in the gallery to talk about their work and the creative process.
No reservations necessary, just stop on by!
Above: Peter Cady, Earlier, Oil on canvas. Left: Dustan Knight, Sunset—Ceres Street, Acrylic.
Art ‘Round Town Friday Evening!
Above: Michael Sterling, Peter Coren demonstrates woodworking techniques at the Boatshop at Strawbery Banke, Portsmouth. June 01, 2019. Below, Kenneth R. Goldman, US Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) campaigns in the New Hampshire presidential primary at South Church in Portsmouth. February 18, 2019
Are there teenagers in your life? Reach out and encourage their creativity! Enter the Teen/Teen Group category for the 31st Annual Gingerbread House and Exhibition. Here’s a shot of last year’s winning teen creation, Rustic Retreat, by Frank and Ariana!
