My brother-in-law, John, works as a project architect and construction administrator for RLPS, an architectural firm based in Lancaster.  For many, many years his firm has created a unique Christmas-themed display which is then opened to the public.  After our family Christmas gathering on Saturday, John gave us a private viewing of this year’s village and of the gorgeous office space he gets to work in every day.

The theme this year is the Adirondack Mountains and all buildings are required to reflect this turn of the century (circa. 1900-1930) architectural style.  Several rules accompanied the design and creation of this year’s theme: all models are at a scale of 3/8″ – 1’0″ (making people about 2 inches tall), all visible material other than windows, roof structure and lights are edible, and 75% – 100% of the  exterior walls  are made of pretzels.  I was blown away by the precision of construction and the attention to detail – even the interiors had glowing fireplaces, Christmas trees and an occasional grand piano.  With moving parts, a multitude of twinkling lights and a heavy dose of whimsy and humor,  Adiron-Deck the Halls was an unexpected delight  for me.  I’m thankful for my connection to an insider so I could take my time investigating it.

Some statistics:

• > 30 unique pretzel shapes used
• 40 gallons of Royal icing
• 120 12″ x 12″ sheets of gingerbread
• 15 pounds of salt
• 16 pounds of aluminum wire
• 652 trees
• > 50 pounds of candy
• 20 pounds of rock candy
• 17 houses
• > 2400 lights

This is what happens when designers, draftsmen, and architects play with their food:

Adiron-Deck the Halls 

So much fun…thanks, John!

UPDATE: John sent me the link to a time-lapse photography video on Youtube showing all the prep that was involved in putting this little display together.