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Santa's Gingerbread Castle — Description
I've always loved castles and gingerbread houses. And while I would love to build a huge, sprawling, illuminated gingerbread fortress, I seem to lack the architectural and culinary know-how to execute my ambitious designs. Plus, I've never liked the imprecise nature of building things out of gooey, crumbly food. While I am in awe of those who succeed at building fantastic gingerbread monstrosities, I was frustrated that I could never express my visions in this venue. Then it occurred to me, I could build my ideas in CAD, and create exactly what I wanted. So here it is: Santa's Gingerbread Castle.

I built this in two days, starting on Thanksgiving Day, and finishing on Black Friday. It's my tribute to the Christmas season. It's Santa Claus's Gingerbread Castle the way I always imagined it, complete with candy canes "growing in the wild," waffle-cone castle spires, peppermint architecture, the official North Pole "pole," and Frosty the Snowman himself. We see it on a cold blustery night, with fierce winds and a bit of snow.

Early in the process of building this, it occurred to me that a CAD winter scene was likely to be reminiscent of the classic Rankin Bass "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" holiday special. (i.e. My finished image would likely feature stylized cartoony forms with realistic lighting and shadows, ala stop-motion claymation, or modern CG animation.) That look suited my tastes perfectly, so I went right to work. And while my castle design is quite different from the structure that appears in the Rankin Bass production, the trees, the blowing snow, and the mountains in the background are meant to be evocative of that style.

So you may be wondering, "Is this supposed to be a little gingerbread castle styled to look like Santa's Castle? Or is it Santa's full-sized castle, that just looks like it's made out of gingerbread?" I guess it's a little bit of both. Or maybe it's a model in a claymation holiday special. I guess it can be whatever you want it to be. Happy Holidays.