Christmas mad mum from Utah transforms home into real-life gingerbread house

A Christmas-mad mum has transformed her home into -- a real-life gingerbread house.

Virginia Hoffman, 67, spent ‘hundreds of hours’ festooning her property into a vision from a fairytale.

Homemade decorations include candy canes, giant gumdrops, peppermint swirls, huge chocolate and wafer cookies, and an oversized gingerbread man.

Interior designer Virginia, of Salt Lake City, Utah, U, says her daughter, son-in-law, and their children all were involved, as well as her husband, who is a professional artist.

She said: “I live in a neighborhood where most the houses were built in the 1920's and the architecture has a lot of charming characteristics.

"I was looking at my circle of houses and thought how they all looked like gingerbread houses with their various roof lines and windows.

"I began to imagine how I could make some decorations to make my house into a gingerbread house.

"I drew a little sketch of what was in my mind, and then I started thinking of how to accomplish it. It grew on from there.

“It was a lot of work, but each year it is fulfilling to see it completed and feel like a lot was accomplished with imagination, ingenuity, a little engineering and figuring things out, and some luck.

“I am grateful for the help and support of my husband and family members; without them I would not have been able to succeed. They have spent many hours along with me.

“Also, a project such as this, taken on with help from family and grandchildren, will hopefully be a long-term memory that they'll always remember and maybe cherish. It's a special thing in our family now because we made it ourselves.

"The best part for me is watching children come. When they come up to the house and they look at things up close and, honestly, the twinkle in their eyes is just magical. I love to see that it catches their imagination.”