The sweet smell of sugar and gingerbread pervades Norway House, now celebrating its 10th annual Gingerbread Wonderland.
With roughly 230 gingerbread creations, from classic Norwegian houses to football stadiums and even a life-size troll, the “mostly” edible wonderland features work from bakers of all ages and experience levels.
“The quantity of houses has just grown,” said coordinator Heather Vick. “Every year we think we won’t be able to fit them all because it keeps getting bigger and bigger.”
The gingerbread town gets its inspiration from the world’s largest gingerbread village in Bergen, Norway — “Pepperkakebyen” — where about 2,000 gingerbread buildings make up the traditional Norwegian Christmas event.
In 2015, former director of programs Rachel Peterson approached Vick with the idea of starting their own Christmas tradition at Norway House, and together they brought their version of the Norwegian gingerbread festival to the Twin Cities.
Over the past decade, Vick has watched not only the number of gingerbread creations rise, but also the number of people attending the event.
In addition to the houses, castles and churches brought in by bakers, there are the creations from Norway House’s Gingerbread Community Build Days, where people built structures with provided supplies.
For the past two years, those events were made possible thanks to a Cultural Districts Arts Fund Initiative award from the city of Minneapolis. The funding allowed Norway House to furnish the supplies for the events.
