Holiday magic: Tour 28 gingerbread houses in Sausalito

Conventional architects, designers and builders hope that the ultimate reveal of their projects will delight the eye and please the senses.

So do the baking wizards behind the 28 gingerbread houses that are on display throughout Sausalito for the 17th annual Sausalito Gingerbread House Tour and Competition, which is growing in popularity.

“We’ve always had a very good turnout, but we tripled in size over the last three years,” says Kim Huff, a board member of the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce, which presents the event.

Open to participation by chamber members, the charming confectionaries they create can fall into one of five categories: cultural celebration, storybook tales, sea life adventure, salty Sausalito and holiday magic.

The houses can be seen primarily in the downtown and Old Town areas, although two — Sausalito Pottery and Cavallo Point Lodge — are located at either ends of the city.

The displays will stay in place until Dec. 31, when the voting for people’s choice concludes. Votes by members of the public can be registered by QR code or online at the Sausalito Chamber of Commerce’s website, where a free, self-guided Gingerbread House Tour map can be downloaded. Go to sausalito.org.

As with any building process, there were design decisions to be made for each house, concerns to be addressed, deliberations to be considered, final decisions to be made and materials to be sourced and assembled.

Fortunately, the tour’s “planning department” had only one requirement — each house had to be made of gingerbread, leaving plenty of room for imaginative interpretations.

“Houses range in creativity and talent from amateur to professional,” Huff says. “But all the houses are unique and cleverly designed.”

Those words would please Gallery Sausalito owner Sue Averell, who teamed up with professional baker Christi Duma of Mill Valley’s Birdland Bakery this year to create a gingerbread dog house inspired by Averell’s dog, Chica.

“She’s the cutest little rescue that keeps me company at the gallery,” Averell says.

This is the first time in four years of participation that Averell has worked with a professional baker for a tour house.

She says she handed Duma a sketch of her vision, but encouraged her to add as much decoration as possible.

“She came up with so many fun design elements,” Averell says. “For example, the bones that decorate the house and the way she brought the dog to life with icing. There looks to be more than a dozen different types of candy and the peace sign made of candy is just too much fun.”

In fact, she says, the “collaboration was so much fun we are already planning our creation for next year.”

Across the street, Chelsea Croy of Hubba Hubba, a woman’s boutique, collaborated with Kirstin Wenster Pearson of Revelry Cakes in Sausalito to dream up a storybook take on “Alice in Wonderland” with “Alice in Hubba Hubba.”

Alice falls down into a replica of the Hubba Hubba building — decorated with windows that reference the Queen of Hearts, a running bunny that’s a nod to the White Rabbit and magic mushrooms that make Alice grow taller.

“It’s all edible,” Croy says. “It has gingerbread, icing and lots and lots of sugar.”

Aness Pogni, owner of Soxalito and several other local stores in the past, has been participating since the tour started.

This year’s entry, Barbie’s Dream House: Eras!, which depicts the Barbie doll’s evolution, was designed and built by her friend, Merrill Walker, a cardiac nurse at Stanford Hospital and an amateur baker.

“On the rooftop balcony is the original Barbie created in 1959,” Pogni says. “The rest of the house has rooms that represent every decade of Barbie from the 1959 kitchen where Alan is baking gingerbread cookies, to the 1960s’ room where Barbie is in her room listening to current record albums, to the fun outdoor life of the 1970s with Malibu Barbie and Ken enjoying the pool, to the 1980s where Barbie was more of a career woman and featuring the first real Black Barbie, to the 1990s with the most popular Barbie of all times, Total Hair Barbie.”

Then, she adds, “there is the Millennium Barbie in all her blue-velvet glory and the 2010 Barbie with her selfie stick, to the present Barbie (and Ken) riding around in her Dream Car, a homage to the 2023 movie.”

Taking weeks and an estimated 100 “solid hours” of baking and building, not counting planning time, Pogni says that Walker used gingerbread, fondant, gum paste, candy, Rice Krispies, rice paper, sprinkles and frosting to complete the display.

Best tips for touring

There is still time to daytrip to Sausalito to see the gingerbread houses and vote for a favorite.

Two-hour parking is free on Caledonia Street, allowing visitors a starting point on the house tour.

“The best time to tour is during the day since some businesses are not open at night,” Huff says. “Many have the houses in their windows for viewing if they are not open.

“Allow a portion of the day to see all the houses,” she adds. “The afternoon is a great time to shop and dine and take in all the activities Sausalito has to offer.”

Several merchants are providing special deals during the tour, including Gallery Sausalito’s free, in-store raffle for a choice of a framed original drawing, a 10% off discount at LOVEMARIN and a $5 gingerbread eggnog cocktail (and free eggnog or hot chocolate for children) at the Trident restaurant.

Show off

If you have a beautiful or interesting Marin garden or a newly designed Marin home, I’d love to know about it.

Please send an email describing either one (or both), what you love most about it, and a photograph or two. I will post the best ones in upcoming columns. Your name will be published and you must be over 18 years old and a Marin resident.

PJ Bremier writes on home, garden, design and entertaining topics every Saturday. She may be contacted at P.O. Box 412, Kentfield 94914, or at pj@pjbremier.com.