Real-life ‘gingerbread house’ brings Christmas cheer
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (KSTU) – Spreading Christmas cheer in a Utah neighborhood: That was the goal for a woman who turned her home into a “gingerbread house.”
Giant gumdrops, peppermint swirls, candy canes, a fudge-striped cookie, even a gingerbread man adorn the home of Virginia Hoffman.
“It’s all homemade, and it’s all been kind of figure it out as you go,” she said.
Hoffman says it was a few years ago when she realized her red brick, near-century old Tudor home, with a few additions, could possibly be a real-life gingerbread house.
“‘How would I do that! I wonder if I could do that! How can we make this house into a gingerbread house?’” she said.
It is hardy enough to withstand the wintry weather but still looks like something good enough to eat.
“I started with these gumballs, told my family about it and luckily they didn’t think I was crazy,” Hoffman said. “And so, we painted gumballs in the kitchen over Thanksgiving of 2019 and then my daughter and son in law helped me figure out how to attach it to the roof.”
The interior designer by trade tackled one treat after another, a sweet and satisfying labor of love that she says consumed hundreds and hundreds of hours.
“If I’m stressed at work and can’t sleep, a lot of times, one of the things I would do is lay in my bed and think, ‘OK, what will be the next good thing?’ And it would just be a distraction,” she said.
She had help from her husband, a professional artist, and even her grandchildren got in on the fun.
“It’s a really fun project to do with kids and your family, and it’s been a really fun project together,” Hoffman said.
Her chocolate brown caulking, peppermint sticks from drainpipes, the gumdrops, upside down planters and this year’s new item: the vanilla wafers.
“We made that out of foam insulation and then my husband melted out the squares with a soldering iron, and I painted them and got the exact right colors, um, to look like the cookies,” she said.
That attention to detail delights those who drive by and also thousands online who’ve liked and commented on a Reddit post shared by her daughter.
“I hope that if it can just put a smile on anyone’s face, if it can just help a little bit, a little Christmas cheer, that’s the whole goal, it will all be worth it,” Hoffman said.
See more at…https://www.nbc12.com/2021/12/13/real-life-gingerbread-house-brings-christmas-cheer/