All five of the Burlington team’s gingerbread houses.

After last winter’s success, the employees at Burlington have once again harnessed their creative energies for a gingerbread house contest.

The village went on display last week. As with October’s pumpkin decorating contest, the branch’s customers will vote on their favorite of the five holiday-themed miniature domiciles.

Teller Emily Henry’s theme for house #1 was “go big or go home” — bigger and better than last year’s. For #2, Robin went with a barn because Burlington is a farming community. “I had fun decorating the cow, pig, rooster, and sheep — although the cow was a challenge!” she said.

“Our customers have really been looking forward to this, and have been asking when we were going to have the houses on display,” branch manager Robin Callis said. She noted one change from last winter’s contest. “Last year, I purchased the same premade house for everyone, and we all used the same decorations in whatever way we liked. This year, we each bought our own kit and put in our own personal touches to customize them.”

Personal banker Jolene Cedeno said she enjoyed spending family time with her daughter while working on house #3. Universal banker Bryana Stagg loves the color red and tried to make house #4 as realistic as she could. And teller supervisor Jayme Clarey wanted to keep house #5 simple, but whimsical as well, using as much color as possible for a Christmassy effect.

Voting will end on Christmas Eve, December 24. The first-place winner will receive a gift card of their choice.

“We had so much fun with this, and are already discussing what our next project might be,” Robin said. “We can’t stop now — our customers have come to expect it!”