Decking the halls: Gingerbread puts a new twist on 'affordable housing'

MILLBROOK — There was a lot of construction going on at the Millbrook firehouse Friday, Dec. 10, but neither the town nor the Zoning Board of Appeals had any input on the project.

More than 200 children, teens and parents converged on the firehouse to decorate gingerbread houses. The event was sponsored by the town of Washington Recreation Committee. It was the largest turnout in 12 years of decorating gingerbread.

Lyde Biscardi, retired baking professor at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, spent weeks in her kitchen baking and assembling each of the 200 gingerbread houses. She also made the towering fairyland gingerbread castle that was raffled off at the end of the evening. Decorators brought their own trimmings to apply with a tube of frosting.

Warren McMillan, recreation director, said the most difficult part of putting together the event was pouring the frosting into the 200 clear pastry bags.

Some of the trimmings were healthy, like the shredded wheat roofing material and delicate pretzel log siding brought by artist Helen Portaro, who has been coming with her grandchildren for the last five years. But most of the decorations were very colorful and sweet — boxes and bags of gumdrops, candy canes, M&M’s and gummy bears.

The Brownies of Troop 10040, all second-graders from Elm Drive Elementary School, each brought a different kind of candy and mixed it together on the table they shared. The Brownies and the younger Daisy Troop 10218 earned a special holiday badge for decorating gingerbread houses. The older girls also earned a Be a Sister to Another Sister award.

At another table, three families arrived early with nine kids and three pizzas. Seven of the nine were boys, including second-graders Nicholas Heinlein, Liam Flaherty and Peyton Denis. This year about half of the decorators, who had the focus of HDTV renovators, seemed to be boys. Colin Wohlford, 13, has been coming every year but this was the first year for Brady Jenkins, 3.

“This is one of the few events for the whole family,� McMillan explained. “The idea is to bring back Christmas to when the whole family sat around a table together.�

Marilyn Darnell of Millbrook brought six of her 10 adopted children. She said they look forward to the event every year. She also said it was the support of the community and schools in Millbrook that made it possible for her to give these children a home.