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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, December 12, 2012 · 8 Home sweet home ­ a Douglas family tradition By John Bkila OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF As an annual tradition, Paul Douglas would make gingerbread houses with his four- and twoyear-old sons as a way to spend time with his kids and relive his own childhood Christmas memories. Twenty years later, his now adult sons aren't allowed near the dessert structures, jokes Douglas, which are no longer store-bought-kit models, but his own creations -- the largest, a two-and-a-half foot tall castle -- made from scratch. "The first year, I bought a kit from the grocery store because we didn't know what the heck to do. We followed the directions and built the house, and my two guys helped decorate it... It morphed from being a kit after the second year, when I decided I'd try building one on my own and so I found a recipe for gingerbread in one of my wife's cookbooks, which I still use," said Douglas, who now even makes his own candy decorations. "Christmas is a pretty magical time for young kids and I had some good memories of gingerbread houses when I was a kid. I thought it would be a similar experience with my children -- let's do something that we can remember and do as a family." Douglas, a 26-year Oakville resident and selfemployed importer, says he spends an average of 60 hours on his creations, which are so impressive that he will be one of two designers competing in the Canada's greatest gingerbread artist competi"We said instead of just inviting friends and family over and they smash it down and stuff their face with gingerbread, there's got to be more to this. And let's put a smile on somebody else's face," he said. His sons Granett and Grayson, now 25 and 22, suggested donating the gingerbread house to a women's shelter and using the open house to further collect cash and toys. "The holidays are a great time for families, but it's also a very tough time," Douglas said. "You go to one of these shelters and you have about 20 women who have come from bad, usually violent relationships, and they have their children there and they're spending Christmas at the shelter, no family, it's kind of tough. So, we'll show up on Christmas Eve or Day with close to $1,000 for the shelter and 30-40 unwrapped toys for the kids and, of course, the gingerbread." Donations rotate annually between Halton Women's Place and Armagh in Mississauga. The castle, to be donated to Halton Women's Place this year, will weigh 30-35 kilograms (66-77 pounds), and be made from three dozen eggs, six kilograms (13 pounds) of flour, six kilograms of icing sugar (used as glue), and nearly two litres of corn syrup for the `glass' windows. "When your kids grow up, eventually they have to understand the concept of charity and giving, so they (his sons) get really involved even today, with planning the house party and they've really embraced it," he said. "It's very much a family affair." LABOUR OF LOVE: Paul Douglas prepares a gingerbread house for a competition to air on The Marilyn Denis Show later this month. tion on The Marilyn Denis Show, which filmed this week. His design, for the show, is an homage to Fallingwater, the famous rural Pennsylvania house designed by architect Frank Lloyd Wright. "It's the furthest thing you would ever think of or see as a gingerbread house -- a lot of glass, which is really candy, and cantilevered patios and platforms, walkways," he said. "People will be able to look through the glass and see inside. I'm going to do a working fireplace inside, too. Here I am, a MICHAEL IVANIN / SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER / @halton_photog 53-year-old man and I'm talking about gingerbread, but I don't mind. I like it." Douglas will also be making a gingerbread castle for his family's annual Christmas open house party -- with lots of curves and circular turrets and towers, which he said took him 10 tries to perfect. Traditionally, Douglas would smash the gingerbread house and give his party guests takehome bags of the sweet treat, but that changed a decade ago. ! ! 3 3 3 0 S o u th S e rv ic e R o a d , B u rlin g to n , O N , L 7 N 3 M 6 905.333.IVY1 (4891) reservations@ivybar.ca | www.ivybar.ca An Independently owned DGC ENTERTAINMENT Property