What's the best part about Easter? Many might say that it's the chance to go home and attend church with their families. An added bonus might be a new dress for your "Sunday best" and Easter presents. For me, however, it's The Washington Post's Peeps Diorama Contest.
Easter never has held any religious significance for me. Before last weekend, I didn't know why people picked up palms on Palm Sunday only to return them on Ash Wednesday. I'm still not exactly sure why my Catholic friends "give up something for Lent." I know it makes them healthier when they give up sweets, waste less time when they give up Facebook and be nicer people when they give up gossiping, and I know that they can return to these things after Easter. But I don't actually know what the tradition represents religiously for them. Call me uneducated, well religiously at least, but I never went to Sunday school, so how would I have learned?
Easter, for me, always has meant a scavenger hunt with a chocolate marshmallow bunny at the end. My mom and grandma would set up a series of 10 clues for both my sister and I, written on slips of paper and contained in colorful, plastic Easter eggs. "This is where you might find a pin cushion." We would get our next clue at the sewing machine. "Don't watch too much of this, or your brain will turn to mush." The next stop was the TV. My sister and I would race up and down the stairs, inside and outside of the house, trying to finish first. The winner then would be the one happily sitting at the dining room table, chomping down on a chocolate marshmallow bunny for breakfast, and watching the other frantically run around the house to find the last few clues. Two wicker baskets of crumpled clues, discarded plastic eggs and a layer of Cadbury chocolates signified that both my sister and I had successfully reached the end of our scavenger hunts.
My mom tried to make the clues harder as I got older, but at some point, I had to admit that I was just too old for an Easter egg hunt. Of course I still got the candy. But the chocolate marshmallow bunny just isn't as delicious without doing an Easter egg hunt to find it, and an Easter egg hunt isn't fun after a certain age.
I needed a new form of Easter entertainment, and my plea was met when The Washington Post began the Peeps Diorama Contest in 2007. For those of you who haven't heard of this contest, it's exactly what it sounds like. Contestants make a diorama the size of a shoe-box of a famous events, scenes or pop culture references out of the marshmallow candy Peeps. They then take a photograph of their diorama, send it to The Washington Post, and wait to see if it's chosen as one of the five finalists or the many semi-finalists.
It's really the perfect contest. Although you might feel bad wasting graham crackers, frosting, and chocolate chips when making a gingerbread house, you don't have to feel bad wasting Peeps. I mean, who actually likes the sickly sweet taste of Peeps? It seems like a diorama is the best purpose they can serve.
Every Easter, I eagerly await the online slideshow of the contest winner, finalists and semi-finalists. The contestants are informed in terms of both world events as well as pop culture, and express themselves creatively through the medium of Peeps. Who'd have thought?
Some of the this year's finalists clearly had a sense of humor, when they created a diorama called "TSA Agents Get a Peep Show," which depicts Peeps waiting in a line to go through airport security as TSA Agent Peeps watch the computer screens from a separate room. Another one of the more inspired creations from this year's semi-finalists is "Peeparazzi," which captures Lady Gaga's unique entrance to the Grammy's in an egg, all the more relevant for Easter.
Movies are a common diorama theme. Last year's winning diorama was called "EEP," based on the Pixar movie "Up," and it was an intricate masterpiece. A large clump of colorful balloons, the Peeps, are pulling the Victorian house, constructed of plywood and popsicle sticks, upward until it's floating above the ground. Many of this year's semifinalists are based on movies including "Inpeeption" ("Inception"), "Black Peep" ("Black Swan"), "The King's Peep" ("The King's Speech") and "Despicable Peep" ("Despicable Me"). In "Inpeeption," Peeps, as well as furniture, are suspended midair in the hallway of the hotel. In "Despicable Peep," the yellow peeps are just the right color and size for the hundreds of minion characters.
Classic scenes from popular children's novels also make for good diorama themes. One of last year's finalists, "Goodnight Peep," re-created the picture book's distinctive green-walled room with two big windows, one of which shows the full moon.
"Cherry Blossom Peeps," one of this year's semi-finalists, represents the traditional Washington, D.C. cherry blossom festival, with pink cherry blossom trees in full bloom, a Lincoln Memorial which actually lights up and paddleboats in the Tidal Basin with Peeps safely secured in bright orange life jackets.
Every year, I've been inspired by the Peeps dioramas and tell myself that next year I will enter one. I came close this year. I actually brainstormed ideas, including "BPeep" to represent the BP oil spill and "Jeopeepardy" to depict the show's newest contestant - Walton, the robot. I didn't put my ideas into action, however. I will say it one more time - next year, I will enter a Peeps diorama in the contest. Now it's in print, and if I don't do it, it's libel. I will start by buying Peeps in the after-Easter sale, and maybe next year, my diorama will provide Easter entertainment for someone else.
Sheila's column runs biweekly Fridays. She can be reached at s.bushman@cavalierdaily.com.
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