The holiday season at McMillan Elementary School is looking a little sweeter this year, thanks to a gingerbread house competition highlighting students' cultural backgrounds.The event invited students to craft gingerbread houses that represent their families cultures using school-provided supplies and materials brought from home. Entries ranged from Catholic churches and barns to a design inspired by a call to prayer.We have about eight different languages spoken in our school right now and students coming from all over the world, said Principal Sara DiGrazia.The competition featured categories like Best Cultural Representation and Most Festive, celebrating creativity and diversity in a meaningful way.I think its really eye-opening for all of us, as well as the other students, to understand that we are coming from all different areas of the world, and that we all have a different background, DiGrazia said. We all express ourselves in different ways.For fifth-grader Suzie Manzanares, her creation reflected her Mexican heritage.This one in the middle is called a concha, she explained, pointing to her gingerbread house. Its a sugary bread, and its one of my favorite types of snacks.Second-grader Norah Smart found inspiration closer to home, designing a farm to honor her grandparents.My grandma worked on a farm, and so did my granddad, Smart shared.Fifth-grader Than Whiting incorporated multiple cultures into his project, reflecting his familys diverse background, which includes two adopted siblings from Taiwan.We have Scottish, which is on the front, Nordic, which is like Vikings, and then these two are both Chinese pagodas, Whiting said.Despite the cultural focus, Whiting admitted his favorite part of the project was the candy.Yeah, I probably ate too many gumdrops, he said with a grin.The competition not only allowed students to showcase their heritage but also helped foster a deeper understanding and appreciation for the diversity within their school community.