Winner of the Teenage Category in 2025: Merry Grinchmas from Little Clipper Preschool and PHS Careers in Education Students. Courtesy photo
Gingerbread creations in Portsmouth and a community-built holiday train village in Dover offer two ways to celebrate the season on the New Hampshire Heritage Museum Trail.
Opening Friday, November 27, Portsmouth Historical Society’s 36th Annual Gingerbread House Contest and Exhibition invites visitors to explore “UFOs—Unidentified Frosted Objects.” The optional theme connects with the Society’s exhibition on Betty and Barney Hill, encouraging creations inspired by science fiction and the unexplained.
The free exhibition runs through Wednesday, December 30, at 10 Middle Street in Portsmouth. An opening reception and presentation of Community Judges’ awards will take place Friday, December 4, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
At the Woodman Museum in Dover, the first annual Holiday Train Show opens Friday, December 4, from 5 to 8 p.m. The evening features free viewing, judging, and awards for community-created holiday village models.
The show continues Saturdays and Sundays through December 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with historical holiday artifacts displayed alongside the train village. Weekend admission is $10 for adults and $5 for children ages 4 to 17. Children 3 and younger are admitted free.
“Whether visitors come to see a gingerbread creation in Portsmouth or a holiday train village in Dover, they are discovering places that preserve and share New Hampshire’s heritage,” said Jeff Barraclough, president of the New Hampshire Heritage Museum Trail.
The New Hampshire Heritage Museum Trail connects the public with culturally rich heritage institutions across the state’s Lakes Region, White Mountains, Dartmouth-Sunapee Region, Merrimack Valley, and Seacoast.