Something Christmasy,Something Western. . .

We all know that everything in Texas is big, and down there in Bryan,TX, Bill Horton had one big idea.  As General Manager of The Traditions Club, a private country club and home to Texas A & M’s golf teams, he is a self-professed foodie, spending quite a bit of time watching The Food Network.   Having it in mind that an acquaintance, also in the country club business, held the Guinness Record for having built the largest Gingerbread House in the world up in MN., this Texan was not about to be outdone.  So when the execs of the local St. Joseph Hospital discussed with him ways to raise money for their new Trauma Center, Horton had just the plan . . .

     A plan that took $10K to bring Guinness on board, as well as an architect and a  builder, in order to officially break the record. Luckily for Bill, the membership of the country club is many and varied, and the hospital’s own fundraisers came up with sponsorship levels of up to $25K (donated by Thrive Home Healthcare). Drawings for the house and recipes for the gingerbread were then submitted to Guinness, and the idea was off and running.

So, what did it take to build this gingerbread house? With ingredients and structural materials donated by vendors the club uses—everything from candy to lumber—it took 1,800lbs of butter, 2,925 lbs brown sugar, 7,200 eggs, 225 gallons molasses, 7,200 lbs flour, 1,080 oz. ginger, 720 oz. cinnamon and so on—you get the idea! It also took over 200 people in various capacities from ticket sales and parking lot attendants to electricians and builders. Due to the fact Santa was going to be present for two weeks and the house would be open to the public, the building needed a foundation and a building permit.

One thing they hadn’t counted on, however, was. . . bees.  Unexpected high temperatures for Texas in December brought the bees back out, covering the house in millions. Beekeepers had to be called out to clear them. But the house was up and open to the public from November 30^th to December15^th, 2013.  Made of frosted gingerbread bricks set on a wooden structure, lollipops and candy canes decorated the outside along with ‘frosted’ windows. It had a volume of over 39,000 sq. ft., was 60 ft. long, 42 ft. wide, and over 10 ft. tall at its apex. And, yes, a rep from Guinness Records flew in, did his sums, and declared it the world’s largest gingerbread house—beating the previous record.

Bill Horton with the Guinness World Record Award

Habitat for Humanities later disassembled the gingerbread house and were able to use the lumber and materials for 3 new family homes.  The Traditions Club had raised $208,000 for the St. Joseph’s Trauma Unit. And no single person consumed the 35,823,400 calories . . . .

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

My thanks to Bill Horton for supplying the information in this post, and to Ashley Hinojosa for sending me the photos.  Photos all courtesy of Michael Kellett Photography.

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