Photos: Student-Built Gingerbread Houses Shake Up Competition

Students watch anxiously as machine violently shakes their gingerbread house.

On December 6, 2024, Georgetown students gathered in the Murray Room on Lauinger Library’s fifth floor to form teams working together to build the best gingerbread house. But this holiday competition had a twist: each house would be judged not just on looks but how it fared against a simulated earthquake.

The annual Extreme Gingerbread House Challenge saw faculty and staff judging the students’ work, noting each edible fortress’ aesthetics and creativity before placing them on a shake machine. Competitors watched as their creations withstood slow swaying that steadily grew into violent mechanical shudders, often reducing gingerbread walls to rubble. 

Nevertheless, each participant left with a smile; some glad to have won a prize and others content to munch on their delicious debris. 

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Gingerbread house with a small paper sign saying "Sweet Success"
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Smiling student placing gingerbread house on a shake machine.
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David Strout gets ready to turn on shake machine with gingerbread house placed on top of it.
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Students make last-second adjustments to gingerbread house on shake machine.
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Students watch anxiously as machine violently shakes their gingerbread house.
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Man hits record on cell phone recording video of gingerbread houses getting shaken.
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Winning team of students poses with trophy next to David Strout.