Ivory Homes Gingerbread House Contest & Fundraiser

Usually I avoid all things Christmas until Thanksgiving is over. I feel like this day of gratitude is slowly wasting away as stores put up holiday decorations before Halloween and Walmart releases plans to open at 8pm on Thanksgiving Day.

But I am willing to step off my soapbox for a brief moment to mention an awesome holiday event that combines gingerbread houses and fundraising.

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The Ivory Homes 3rd Annual Gingerbread House Contest combines handmade (by you) gingerbread houses, cash prizes and matching donations. How sweet is that?

Check out a couple of my favorite entries from past years:

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Of course, my entry will probably look more like this…and that’s an overstatement:

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Top prize for the contest is $1,000 with a matching donation made to the charity of your choice. Second and third place are $500 and $250 respectively, also with matching donations. Awesome, right?

Here are the details on how to enter…if you’re up to the gingerbread house challenge:

• Register for the contest.
• Pay a $10 registration fee that will be fully refunded when you deliver your house to the festival.
• Pick an Ivory Home design (your home MUST be modeled after an Ivory Homes design; you can see all home designs here).
• Build your gingerbread house.
• Check in using the online form that we will provide as the festival gets closer.
• Deliver your gingerbread house to the Garden Park Clubhouse in Daybreak on Friday, November 30th.
• Receive your $10 registration fee refund.
• Vote at the festival on December 1st and tell your friends to vote for your house on Facebook.

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And here are the details for the big event on December 1st:

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I’m thinking I’ll base my gingerbread house on one of these four Ivory Homes designs. Notice the homey (small), cottage (easy) feel.

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Clockwise from top left: Barberry, Camellia, Juniper, Poplar

As if the Ivory Homes Gingerbread Contest with its prizes and fundraising wasn’t enough to get your in the holiday spirit, a small group of bloggers (myself included), will be hosting a gingerbread house linky party November 27th through November 30th.

Here are the rules for the linky party:

• Create a gingerbread house based on an Ivory Homes design; house must be 100% edible.
• Write a post about your gingerbread house and include the “I’m participating in the Ivory Homes Gingerbread House Contest” badge (coming soon). Link the badge to http://ivoryhomes.com/blog/index.php/ivory-homes-annual-gingerbread-contest-2/.
• Include an image of the Ivory Homes design after which the house was modeled.

Note: You may want to follow the Ivory Homes official rules in case you also want to enter the official contest.

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The winners will be announced December 1st. First place will receive $200, second place $100 and third place $50…all thanks to Ivory Homes.

And with that, I will leave you to drawing up those gingerbread house plans and finding a reliable contractor. Heaven knows they’re hard to come by during the holidays due to tryptophan-induced food comas.

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Disclosure: Ivory Homes is sponsoring this post, though I wish they were sponsoring my gingerbread house. It might actually turn out of that were the case.

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Feel free to “like” is this REALLY my life? on Facebook. It won’t always earn you an extra entry in a giveaway but it will give you warm fuzzies.

Don’t forget to sign up for free is this REALLY my life? updates via RSS or email so you don’t miss a single awesome post.
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