Mohonk Mountain House Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition: How Voting Works & How to Win

What is the Mohonk Mountain House Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition?

Mohonk Mountain House, the resort at 1000 Mountain Rest Road in New Paltz, New York, stages this competition among its signature seasonal events. Each December the property fills with gingerbread architecture: recent cycles have drawn more than 40 entries, spanning detailed fairytale cottages, elaborate scene builds and full dinosaur constructions.

The balloting is a public vote. Visitors on the grounds weigh in directly, and a companion online vote on the resort's own site, mohonk.com, names the Viewers' Choice winner. Because the entry form, the event description and the ballot all sit on mohonk.com, the program runs without a third-party polling service.

Prizes give the tally real weight. The leading package combines a $1,000 Mohonk award with dinner for two at the Chef's Table, wine pairing included. Smaller recognitions, the Viewers' Choice award among them, round out the December results.

Within the wider field of New York public ballots this one sits in the best-of tradition, but with a seasonal twist: rather than ranking local businesses across many standing categories, it assembles a single December exhibition of baked construction and lets the crowd settle the standings. The Hudson Valley tag in the title comes straight from the organizer's own event name.

Quick facts

Which dates pin down the competition's history and its December rhythm?

The program reaches back a decade. The organizer's own pages state that the Hudson Valley Gingerbread Competition began in 2016 at Mohonk Mountain House, and the current listing bills the event as the 11th Annual edition. Earlier milestones fit that span: the fifth, ninth and tenth annual editions are documented, and a tenth-anniversary nod surfaced in past material.

The fullest dated picture comes from the 2025 cycle. Sunday, December 7, 2025 served as the on-site voting day, when each visitor to the Mountain House could file a single ballot for a favorite entry. An online viewer vote then ran from December 13 through December 24, the winner was announced on December 27, and a $50 prize element appeared among that cycle's listed details.

For the current cycle the details page prints one hard cutoff: entry forms close Friday, November 6 by 5 pm, or until all spaces fill. Beyond that line, the precise open and close days of the coming viewer vote have not been printed; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

Two further points stay off the page. Nothing sets out an eligibility standard for entrants, and no per-supporter ceiling on the online vote appears anywhere on the listing.

How do you actually cast a vote in the gingerbread contest?

Two routes exist, and neither costs anything.

The online route starts at the competition page on mohonk.com. During the mid-December viewer vote you move through the entry gallery, pick the build you want to back and submit. The listing lays out no login or registration requirement, so the path from arrival to a filed vote is short.

The on-site route happens on the grounds. During the display period a posted QR code hands guests the ballot, and the standing rule from the documented cycle applies: one vote per visitor.

A phone covers both routes. The QR code opens the ballot in a mobile browser while you stand in front of the displays, and the same mohonk.com page loads on any handset once the online stretch begins, so nobody needs a desktop to take part.

In person or online?

A supporter planning a push should treat the two routes differently. On-site votes depend on physically bringing people through the gate on the voting day, while online votes can be gathered from anywhere during the mid-December stretch. The playbook at getting more votes online collects tactics that transfer to ballots of this shape.

Where does this ballot sit among New York's other public votes?

New York readers have no shortage of public ballots. Best of Brooklyn, Best of Queens, Best of the Bronx and The City's Best cover the boroughs, while Best of Westchester and Best of Hudson Valley sweep nearby counties with wide category slates.

This competition differs on nearly every axis. It belongs to a single venue rather than a publication, it crowns baked constructions instead of local businesses, and it leans on paper-thin margins decided by people standing in front of the displays. Its audience arrives through the resort's guest list and event calendar rather than through a media brand's circulation.

Even the largest neighbor shares little beyond the mechanic. The City's Best downstate runs the widest reader ballot of the group, yet a gingerbread tally in New Paltz competes for attention in a season, a place and a medium of its own.

Why that matters for supporters

The shape changes how support works. A borough best-of ballot rewards broad digital reach across dozens of categories; this one rewards bakers who can pull visitors to New Paltz in December and convert a stroll past the tables into a filed vote.

How can a baker's circle of supporters make every vote count?

Work backward from the printed deadlines. Because the entry form can close before its stated cutoff once all spaces fill, a build locked in by early November keeps its place in the field. From there, plan the December stretch: recruit the friends and relatives who will genuinely walk the grounds on the voting day, since each visitor carries exactly one ballot, and time social posts for the online window when remote supporters can act on them.

The organizer publishes no policy on organized voting pushes, so keep outreach personal and transparent. Readers weighing paid support can compare options at award vote packages, and the discussion at whether buying votes is legal covers the wider ground.