Gingerbread builders enjoy sweet tradition

Watch 75 people make their own gingerbread houses, and you learn it's not as easy as it looks.

They came out to the Inn at Middleton Place on Sunday afternoon to try their sticky hands at the traditional Christmas craft.

The hard part is getting the walls and roof to stay together once you start piling on the decorations -- unless you had a house that was pre-assembled the day before.

"It really is a two-day project if you want it to stay together," General Manager Abby Martin said.

She put together about 40 houses in advance, so participants only decorated them. Those who chose to glue their own panels together with frosting generally found themselves fighting a losing battle.

"That roof is really heavy," said Vance Kirar of Goose Creek, who used huge globs of frosting to keep the walls in place. "I'm thinking about leaving it off until I get home to hot-glue it."

Laura Ames of Kiawah Island was decorating one of the pre-assembled houses. She said she used to stick the pieces together with melted sugar when she made them for her family.

"It works," she said. "It's like glue."

Elizabeth Gilbert of West Ashley, a volunteer in the house at Middleton Place, was decorating a pre-assembled house with her son, 7-year-old Lucas.

"I thought it would be a fun way to integrate a little bit of Middleton into the holidays," she said.

Long lines of tables held all kinds of candies for decoration -- peppermints, candy canes, red licorice, gumdrops. Cartoons played on a big screen in the background. A Santa walked around and several children of employees wore elf hats.

The Girone family of West Ashley has been coming to the workshop for several years. "It's become a tradition," Pati Girone said. "Some families are very competitive. That would not be us."

The workshop, including a house, cost $18 for adults and $12 for children over 3.

Erin Sakovich of Anderson was helping her daughter, 3-year-old Brooke, make a house. They were guests at the inn.

"We're going to take it back home with us," Erin Sakovich said.