The Gingerbread Festival is a fun-filled, family-friendly event offering a display of over 80 gingerbread houses, a silent auction of the gingerbread houses and other items, a store with handmade crafts and gift items, a café for a delicious lunch, a gingerbread-house demonstration, cookie decorating, and fun activities for children.

The Family Place’s 14th Annual Gingerbread Festival to benefit The Family Place will be held on Saturday, December 3, 2016, at Tracy Hall in Norwich, Vermont. The nonprofit parent and child center is reaching out to new and past gingerbread-house builders in hopes that their signature fundraiser will again be a success.

Gingerbread houses must to be delivered to Tracy Hall in Norwich on Friday, December 2, between 10am and 3pm unless other arrangements are made. Please call (802) 649-3268 or email [email protected] with any questions. For gingerbread house specifications, go to www.thefamilyplacevt.org/.

Admission to the event is $10 per family or $5 per individual, and all proceeds benefit The Family Place.

Last year, The Family Place welcomed over 1,200 visitors to view and bid on 80-plus houses donated by members of the community. Funds raised through business sponsorships, the gingerbread silent auction, the store, café, and festival entrance fees, all of which topped $75,000 in 2015, are used to benefit The Family Place.

Services offered by The Family Place range from support for pregnant and parenting teenagers to developmental therapy for children ages 0–3, in-home support for families struggling with economic stress, a Child Advocacy Center for victims of childhood sexual abuse, and childcare financial assistance.

Sponsors of the 2016 Gingerbread Festival include the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation; Snyder, Cahoon, and Co., PLLC; Let’s Grow Kids; Dead River Company; Blue Sky Restaurant Group; ArtisTree Community Arts Center; Creative Lighting Designs and Décor; Computac, Inc.; Granite Value Capital, LLC.; Tyler, Simms & St. Sauveur, CPAs, P.C.; Dr. Donald J. Neely Hanover Orthodontics; Lake Sunapee Bank; and Windows and Doors by Brownell.

Silent Auction items include tickets from Jet Blue, a Chris Young autographed baseball donated by the Boston Red Sox, Red Sox tickets with a pregame field tour donated by Great Eastern Radio, plus gift certificates for hotels, restaurants, museums, and family memberships. Over 25 gift baskets will be available for bidding. For a complete list, go to www.thefamilyplacevt.org/.