Photo by R.R. Best
Gingerbread houses are a tradition with Nina Martin of Sullivan, and she uses that tradition to help support The Little Theatre on the Square. Above Chef Regina Johnson presented Phillip and Nina Martin with their annual gingerbread creation on Dec. 7.

•December 12, 2018•

By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

Our story begins with Nina Martin’s favorite Christmas memories of the beautiful gingerbread houses her mother, Roberta Tabor, made from scratch every year – no two of which were ever alike.
The gingerbread houses were famous and graced the front page of the Sullivan newspaper each Christmas season.
On Sunday, Dec. 9 Phillip and Nina Martin hosted a benefit for the Little Theatre on the Square in their home featuring this year’s gingerbread creation.
While the Sullivan High School Madrigal Singers performed in the living room, the star in the dining room was the enchanting gingerbread Santa’s workshop which elicited many expressions of delight.
As part of her holiday decorations Nina has always ordered an original centerpiece creation for her dining room table. Her special muse for many of these creations has been bakery chef, Regina Johnson of RegCakes, who loves nothing more than “to take raw ingredients and create something unusual and special.”
In the past Johnson has created medieval castles and Harry Potter themed structures, but this year Nina wanted a gingerbread Santa’s workshop with an ice- skating scene and a fire pit for making s’mores.
This holiday season masterpiece is a lovely little house with a red icing roof featuring Santa’s office, a loading place and a portico for the sleigh. There are skylights, and the back has been cut away to expose the interior which is illuminated with tiny blinking lights. Santa is relaxing in his easy chair. The outside chimney is made of jelly bellies.
The skating pond rotates and is surrounded by gingerbread trees and a bridge. The fire pit has gingerbread children roasting the tiniest marshmallows. Everything is edible except for the platform, the lake and the tiny wire roasting forks. Johnson made nine batches of cookie dough for the entire scene.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.