Sofia Serdiouk, age 11, of Woodbury, wanted to participate in the 2025 Pioneer Press Peeps Diorama Contest, but she faced a quandary.

She used items around the house to create her “Peeps creamery” diorama, with some duct tape assistance from her brother, but she needed to go to the store to buy some Peeps.

However, her mom was too busy to take her shopping, according to Sofia. Sofia’s dad took her to Menards, which is apparently a challenging place to locate Peeps.

Somehow, under a tight deadline, Sofia persevered, and turned in an ice-cream themed diorama (with Peeps!) that won an honorable mention in our annual contest, which fielded more than 100 entries this year.

We love that marshmallow-fueled spirit, of Peeple coming together, of making it work, of creativity, that is the essence of this tradition that dates to 2004. Thank you, Peeps. And congrats to the top winners, who will receive gift cards ranging from $100 to $50.

For more inspiration and photos, go to twincities.com to view more of this year’s winners and favorites, and to print out a Certificate of ParticiPEEPtion.

First place

“Peeps Don’t Tan” >> by the mother-and-daughter team of Kristin Sykes and Shannon Sykes of Cottage Grove

“My mom and I have had the idea to show the progression of a Peep tanning for many years,” Shannon explained in this dynamic duo’s entry. “As a mother-daughter team, we have had a lot of experiences at the beach together, and had our fair share of sunburns. This made us wonder: How would a marshmallow fare in the summer heat?”

It wasn’t beach season when this team started making their diorama, though.

“Most of our sand in the backyard was frozen and covered in layers of snow,” Shannon wrote. “We tried dirt, but it didn’t quite look right. It was my mom, Kristin, who came up with the idea to use brown sugar! It was the perfect substitute, and you can hardly tell it isn’t sand.

“I created the foaming waves using a bottle of window cleaner, and sprayed it onto the construction paper and fake sand. The foamy soap in the cleaner perfectly replicated crashing waves. The only hard part was taking photos quick enough before the bubbles started disappearing!”

But that wasn’t the best part.“The most fun part of the project was getting to do it with my mom!” Shannon wrote. “We both contributed ideas the other wouldn’t think of, and working together was a great way to spend my winter break while home from college!”

That’s the part we love most about this contest: it provides an opportunity for people to bond over dioramas — including our top prize winners.

Second place (tie)

“National Parks Peep’s Road Trip Vacation” >> by Heidi Hansen of St. Paul

“Peepzen Coffee” >> by the Grand and Pascal neighbors in St. Paul (Jason Koenig, Jeff Miersch, Alisa Lein, Tom Mueller, Kevinn Tam and Christina Koppang)

It was a tie for second place in a competition between staying close to home and heading out for a road trip.

We loved how Heidi Hansen of St. Paul created Peeps traveling to different places in “National Parks Peep’s Road Trip Vacation.” Hansen displayed a selection of Polaroid-like images showing scenes from parks, from a Peep taking a selfie with a buffalo in the Badlands to another watching whales in Glacier Bay to two Peeps stargazing from a tent at Voyageurs.

We asked Hansen how she made this mini masterpiece.

“I made small shadow boxes to look like Polaroid pics out of foam board and painted all the backgrounds on poster board and mounted them on a piece of black foam board,” she replied.

While Hansen’s Peeps travel far and wide, the Peeps of our other second-place winners prefer traveling just around the block for a cup of coffee — with a side of cat.

“This diorama is based off of Catzen Coffee which opened up on 1/1/25 at 1416 Grand Avenue and has been drawing in people from all over the metro,” the Grand & Pascal Neighbors wrote in their entry. “All of us who worked on this diorama live and/or work just a block away and love the new neighborhood establishment to the Avenue.”

A dog among them, though, felt differently.

“The evening before we were scheduled to photograph the diorama,” the neighbors wrote, “our dog climbed up onto a chair at the table and ate five of the bunnies lined up along the ‘sidewalk’ in front of the cafe. An emergency run to the store to get more happened later that night but the only color available was pink, so we’re a little pink bunny heavier than initially planned.”

Still looks delicious to us!

Third place

“Love is Blind in Minnepeepolis” >> by Susie Emmert of Minneapolis

As far as reality television goes, nothing was closer to home than the eighth season of “Love is Blind,” which is set in Minneapolis.

It provided the theme for Susie Emmert’s diorama.

“‘Love is Blind’ is the only reality show I watch, so when it was filmed in Minneapolis, I was beyond excited for it,” she wrote in her entry. “When it occurred to me I had the doll house furniture in storage, and had been saving the perfect purple box for no specific reason (because you can’t throw away a good box), I knew I had a ‘Love is Blind’ pod ready to be built!”

If you don’t know, the Netflix show’s concept involves getting to know someone while communicating from separate pods.

The diorama also has details that match the show’s, including the golden goblets that are a sipping signature.

It was a love match — and a 3D printer— that helped make those happen.

“My husband and kids have been making a lot of random things on the 3D printer, so he made the miniature gold cups like they use on the show,” Emmert explains. “fter multiple tries, we now have a set of gold cups just like the show, but for Peeps! They are painted with tempera gold paint. He also used the 3D printer to make the big blue screen they face in the show, the panels to make the shape of the room, and the top border from the bird’s-eye view of the pods, and finally, the tiny engagement ring box being used for the proposal.”

Honorable mentions:

— “Dye-O-Rama” by Kira Hartke of Minneapolis. This Peep Dye-O-Rama was inspired by Peeps being on the list of foods that currently have red dye 3 in their ingredients list.

— “2025 Peeps Easter Egg Hunt” by Laura Bathke of St. Paul. After Bathke was diagnosed with cancer a day before retiring, she opted to enter our contest while her travel plans were put on hold.

— “Peeper Nooo” (a reference to “The White Lotus”) by sibling duo Taylor Hillestad and Garrett Hillestad of St. Paul.

— “Take a Peep at What We Found!” by Judy Smith and Melanie Hendrickson of St. Paul (inspired by our Treasure Hunt and featuring this year’s medallion!).

MasterPeeps winner

“There’s Been a Murder!” >> by Cynthia Kleist of Shoreview

This year, we created a new category for past top winners: MasterPeeps!

Cynthia Kleist’s dioramas have topped our contests through the years, including a pandemic-themed one, “The Do’s and Mostly Don’ts of Zoom Meetings,” that took first place in 2021.

This year, Kleist was inspired by an iconic board game.

“There’s been a murder and no one is saying a peep, so we don’t have a clue!” Kleist wrote.

In addition to the murder scene, there’s a close-up of the suspects (with one of them holding a Pioneer Press!).

“If you look closely at the diorama you will be able to

figure out the weapon and who did it!” Kleist wrote. “Good luck!”

MasterPeeps: Honorable mentions

—“Minnepeepolis Sculpture Garden” by the Schomburg family. Artists: Murray, Bev, Brian, Aaron, Heidi, Scott, Greg, Moira, Grayden (16), Evelyn (13), Harrison (12) and Helena (8) Schomburg.

— “‘Sweet’ Deals on TESLAR Cybertrucks!” by Jill Schaefer of Minnetonka.

— “Peep What You Sow Community Garden” by Katherine Rose of St. Paul.

Little Peeple (7-12) winner

“Marshmallow Institute of Art” >> by Esmé Micek, age 10, of Woodbury

We loved this diorama of Peeps admiring art at a museum that is a play on the Minneapolis Institute of Art.

“Esmé’s diorama features Peeps viewing renowned works of art at the M.I.A. — the Marshmallow Institute of Art,” writes Esmé’s mom, Mykala Micek. “The museum’s holdings include paintings of the ‘Mona Peep-sa,’ ‘The Scream,’ ‘American Gothic,’ as well as a rare 15th-century Italian marble Peep statue.

“Inspired by her visits to the Minneapolis Institute of Art (and a budding interest in art history), Esmé wanted to create a Peep-sized version of a museum for her marshmallow friends to enjoy, as well,” Micek wrote. “Her favorite part was re-creating the famous paintings with Peeps, and she was so excited to show us the finished pieces.”

Chicks (0-6) winner

“Music in the House” >> by Trinity Huntzicker, age 5, of Minneapolis.

The judges were charmed by the musical performance of the Peeps in Trinity Huntzicker’s diorama, and we also admired her perseverance.

This is the third year Trinity has entered this contest.

Back in 2023, Trinity created a “Peeps Patrol” scene using the “Paw Patrol” toys she got for Christmas. She took that theme outside in 2024, using both Peeps and “Paw Patrol” elements.

This year, Trinity is back indoors and inspired by something new — and something old — in her diorama, which features Peeps playing musical instruments in a vintage setting.

“The doll house belonged to Trinity’s mother,” the entry submission said. “Trinity loves music.”

Bravo, Trinity!

Peep-ager (13-17) winner

“Marshmallow Data Refinement” >> by Conrad Zenisek Ridley, 13, of Minneapolis

We’ve got another family connection this year! In addition to the mother-daughter team who took first place, Conrad is the stepson of Susie Emmert, our third-place winner.

“My stepmom came to me and told me about the competition, and I had recently been watching ‘Severance,’” Conrad wrote.

(The Apple TV+ series is a sci-fi take on the work-life balance.)

“When I couldn’t think of an idea, I decided to just do ‘Severance,’ so first I went online and got a 3D model of a Peep, and I removed the ears and part of the head in a CAD program,” Conrad wrote. “For Christmas, my family got a 3D printer, so I used it to first print the Peep, then the desk, monitor, keyboard and other items. Then, I painted them all with acrylic paints. Finally, I cut the marshmallow Peep off so it was shorter to fit the desk.”

As for the judges and our impression of Conrad’s work, we quote Mark Scout from Season 1, Episode 4: “The work is mysterious and important.”

— “Camping” by Tony Aung, age 8, of Maplewood.

— “The Peeps Creamery” by Sofia Serdiouk, age 11, of Woodbury.

— “Peep Simpsons” by Michael Mewis, age 11, of Glenwood City, Wis.

Pioneer Press Peepers

In our second annual employee version of the Peeps contest, we had four strong contenders:

The Peeps were playing in a “basement jam sesh” by Mars King; the Peeps went sledding in Imani Cruzen’s diorama; the Peeps attended the 2024 Met Gala in Talia McWright’s diorama and Frederick Melo wrangled up some kids to recreate a Taylor Swift concert.

At press time, with employee votes still incoming, the lead candidate was Molly Guthrey’s diorama, which recreated our real-life, in-person voting process that involves coffee and Post-it notes. Over the years, as Molly notes, we have judged more than 4,000 dioramas!