From left to right, Kearneysville residents Rosie Fisher, Mary Ann Fisher and Prince Snowflake stand beside the “Prince Snowflake Purrade” diorama in The Station at Shepherdstown on Saturday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — The Spring Peep Show returned to The Station at Shepherdstown on Saturday, for the second year post-pandemic.

According to organizer Todd Cotgreave, the annual event has been a way that local residents have celebrated the Easter season together for more than a decade, off-and-on.

“We had a good showing of entries this year,” Cotgreave said. “The people that entered put in so much effort. It’s always interesting to see what people have imagined and how they’ve created that with Peeps.”

Both individuals and groups are encouraged to participate in the show every year, by creating dioramas that prominently feature Peeps marshmallows and delivering them to The Station at Shepherdstown at the beginning of the show day.

The dioramas are then put on display and voted on by attendees, who determine the top three dioramas of the show.

Baltimore residents Todd and Krista McDowell, along with their four-year-old son Oliver, check out the “Prince Snowflake Purrade” diorama at the Peep Show in The Station at Shepherdstown on Saturday. Photo by Tabitha Johnston

The winners receive prize baskets filled with Easter candy, coupons to local businesses and Peeps-related products or, in the case of the first place winner, a case of 10 Peeps packs.

“We like the name of it — the Peep Show — because it sounds like we’re doing something naughty, when in fact it’s actually very wholesome,” said Shepherdstown resident Madge Morningstar, of herself and her wife, Karen Henry. “I like that it’s all homemade stuff — other than the Peeps, it doesn’t look like people are buying special stuff for their dioramas. They’re using things from around the house to make these really creative displays.”

Henry agreed, noting that they enjoyed supporting the show both last year and this year, because of where the funds from the voting ticket purchases would be going. This year, the proceeds from the Peep Show were donated to the 501©(3) nonprofit organization, A Tails Wag Dog Rescue.

“It’s fun and playful and quirky, and it all goes to a good cause,” Henry said.

They particularly favored “The Peeps From Outer Space” diorama by Amanda and Clint Roy, which featured toy soldiers attempting to fight off a hoard of aliens, portrayed by Peeps chicks wearing tiny plastic cup helmets. Morningstar and Henry said they were also intrigued by a French Revolution-inspired diorama, featuring a Peeps chick being beheaded by a guillotine, and an Alcoholics Anonymous-inspired diorama, which displayed a circle of Peeps bunnies at a meeting.

The idea for the Alcoholics Anonymous diorama came to creator Jenna Winters and her partner, Matthew Pfaltzgraff, the night before the show.

“Last year, I did a diorama for the Peep Show on the Mecklenburg Inn, with my dad’s band, the Eastern Regional Jam Band. That diorama featured a lot of bar fights in it,” Winters said. “So this year, I thought I’d completely shift my theme and do something about sobriety.”

Pfaltzgraff said he thought up the idea for recreating an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting circle with Peeps, since he had seen them regularly portrayed in the television show, “Mom.”

“It didn’t take too long to make, once we figured out what we wanted to do,” Pfaltzgraff said.

Kearneysville residents Mary Ann Fisher and her daughter, Rosie Fisher, also created a diorama for the Peep Show.

Their diorama, “Prince Snowflake Purrade,” was inspired by the many parades their cat, Prince Snowflake, has participated in.

“He makes so many people happy,” Mary Ann said. “And we love taking him to all of these parades and shows, because we know how happy it makes other people.”