Westminster Outside of Westminster (Long Live Sesame Peep!)

Long live Sesame Peep!

One of my favorite things about Westminster is that every spring, around Easter, the Carroll Arts Center hosts what they call the PEEPshow. It’s not what it sounds like! The Westminster PEEPshow is actually an art competition in which Carroll County families and school groups (and occasionally McDaniel students) make sculptures (and illustrations, paintings, photographs, and even movies) using Marshmallow Peeps.

I’ve gone to the PEEPshow every year, and two years ago, I took my family with me. That particular PEEPshow was memorable because one family, the Mondors, had made a GIANT sculpture of Big Bird with — you guessed it — Marshmallow Peeps. I was impressed with the time and talent it must have taken to create such a spectacle, who carried a sign that said “Long Live Sesame Peep,” as was practically everyone else who saw it.

Now, why am I writing about Peeps and Easter in January? Last month, I had the chance to see the Big Bird Peep sculpture in the flesh again. My mom, brother, and I traveled to Bethlehem, PA to visit their Christkindlmarkt the week before Christmas, and when we passed the offices of the local PBS station on our way back to our car, who else was standing in the window but Big Bird himself?

I was thrilled. I called out, “It’s Big Bird! It’s Sesame Peep!” and my family, having attended that PEEPshow with me, quickly understood what I was talking about. We snapped a few photos of my yellow friend and were on our way.

After the 2013 PEEPshow had ended, Big Bird needed a home big enough for him, and the PBS station in Bethlehem ended up being perfect, since Bethlehem is home to Just Born Inc., the company that manufactures Peeps, and PBS is obviously home to Sesame Street. Instead of being trashed like many Peeps sculptures inevitably do, Big Bird is able to continue to delight the public — including unsuspecting folks like me, who think of Westminster as a second home, and are highly entertained to see a big yellow slice of it somewhere else.

Long live Sesame Peep.