• by Melynda Fuller , December 8, 2017

For the fourth year, Taste of Home brings its Gingerbread Boulevard to New York City’s Madison Square Park this week. Partnering with Folgers and Domino Sugar, the instillation now features an interactive gingerbread house. 

In past years, smaller gingerbread houses have dotted the park’s landscape. 

Styled around the Folgers-centric phrase “Share a coffee, share a memory,” the instillation takes visitors on a journey with a gingerbread man who has lost the star for his Christmas tree.

Visitors watch his story through the windows of the house, which are actually video screens that turn the park into a candy version of itself. The Madison Square Christmas tree becomes a candy tree, and the Flatiron Building turns to gingerbread. Visitors are hit with interactive elements like a gust of cold air when a storm arises.

The brand added a series of “social-media steps” to immerse visitors in the world of Gingerbread Boulevard before they reach the house. Upon entering Madison Square Park, guests can take pictures with a marshmallow snowman and gingerbread man on Snapchat.

They can post photos to Instagram using #gingerbreadblvd. Taste of Home will choose favorites and share them across its social-media platforms.

“Social media has proven a great way to promote our brand and Gingerbread Boulevard,” says Joe Losardo, Taste of Home’s executive brand director. He says social media allows a New York-centric event to become a national conversation around holiday traditions.

Taste of Home hosted 325,000 visitors at the instillation over 10 days in 2016. The brand expects 350,000 visitors during the two weeks it is displayed this year.

Taste of Home will also use Facebook Live to stream instructional videos from Madison Square Park, led by the magazine's culinary specialists. They offer fans tips for baking their own gingerbread creations at home. “This way, everyone can get a piece of Gingerbread Boulevard, whether you’re here or not,” says Losardo. 

The instillation runs through December 20.