Dec. 22—After Mary York’s mother-in-law died in August of 1997, she knew the holidays would be a sad time for her family.

“I thought, ‘let’s do something kind of fun at Thanksgiving,’ cause I knew we were all going to be missing her,” said York.

So, she baked a bunch of gingerbread to make houses her family could decorate. She had never made gingerbread houses before.

“I just got a recipe and decided to try it,” she said.

The activity has become a source of family enjoyment every year since.

Now, the 80-year-old gets help sometimes from her daughter, Tammy Kearney, making the gingerbread.

“We kind of have a system going — these later years especially — where she rolls it out and cuts them, and I tend to the oven,” said York.

York said mixing the gingerbread and letting it chill takes her over half a day.

“So, I do that usually one day, and then whenever we can, we do the rolling out and baking,” she said.

York said the process takes a half day with the two of them.

“If it’s just me doing it, all day, sometimes into the next day,” she said.

York puts the basic house structures together after she learned the first year that it takes a long time for them to dry.

The decorating commences after the Thanksgiving feast at York’s home in Edgewood and lasts the rest of the afternoon.

York admits it takes a lot of ingredients to accommodate her large family; this year, that included 19 pounds of powdered sugar and almost 2 pounds of meringue powder for the icing, and 25 pounds of flour for the gingerbread. York said she usually makes at least five batches of the gingerbread, enough for between 15 and 20 houses.

York finds the time spent well worth it, as she enjoys watching her family decorate the houses and seeing what they create — a tradition that has continued into the next generation.

“It started out with grandkids doing it, and now I got the great-grandkids doing them too,” she said.

But it’s not just kids doing it.

“Surprisingly, better than half of the adults even make them,” she said.

York makes extra pieces as family members sometimes cut the houses or add to them, adding rooms or making two stories. Sometimes, the finished works don’t resemble houses at all. This year, the gingerbread creations included a church, a log cabin, a barn with a tractor and elevator with hay going up, and a car wash.

“You never know what they’re going to come up with. They each come up with their own idea,” said York.

York recalls one year her grandson made an outhouse that included a tiny roll of toilet paper and a seat.

There are no rules in creating the structures, except for one: It all has to be edible.

“It all has to be like candy, cookies, graham crackers, cereal, whatever they want to bring,” she said.

Granddaughter Ashley Tappendorf has been making gingerbread creations since she was 8. Now 34, her gingerbread house making skills have grown right along with her.

“When I was younger, I just did a basic gingerbread house. But as I got older, I made different things like a castle. I think I made the camper one year. This year, I did a ski lodge,” she said.

Tappendorf keeps an eye out year-round for what she will create. Her inspiration comes from Pinterest.

“If I run across one I like, I save it for later,” she said. “The beginning of October is when I start thinking about what I want to do.”

“Sometimes, if my daughter is into something, like the year she was really into ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ I did a castle,” she added.

Her daughter, 8, and son, 5, both create their own houses now.

“They’ve done it since they were old enough to put candy on icing,” she said.

Tappendorf loves sharing the tradition with her children and said it is a neat memory to pass down.

Tappendor’s mother, Kearney, has been making the same structure every year — a log cabin — and uses pretzels for the logs.

“Just because I love log cabins. We usually go to Tennessee and stay in a cabin. So, that just reminds me of those fun times. They would always turn out really pretty,” she said.

York provides the basics for the gingerbread creations, including waffle cones to make pine trees, which are made by covering the cones in white icing and then rolling them in green coconut. But if there is something special needed, family members bring it themselves.

Tappendorf admits the tradition can get a little competitive.

“It’s fun to see what everybody else does, and then sometimes we don’t share what we’re doing right away just because we want to surprise each other. We have a lot of artistic people in our family. Like my cousin, Kelsey, is an art teacher and she’s always the most creative one I think. Last year, she had a little coffee shop, and this year, she did an ice cream shop. She’s always got some really good ideas,” she said. “The possibilities are endless with a little imagination, some icing and candy.”

Family members take home their finished gingerbread creations and look forward to doing it again next year, as does York, who plans to continue hosting the tradition for as long as possible.

“I’m sure it’s a tradition that will continue for a long time,” said Tappendorf.

Cathy Griffith can be reached at 618-510-9180 or cathy.griffith@effinghamdailynews.com.