The Famous Windsor Gingerbread House will be featured on television this month
For the last ten years it has been a holiday tradition in the Mortensen family to transform their home into a life-size gingerbread house with the hopes of bringing joy to all those who visit.
This year, the family will be spreading cheer a bit further when their home is featured on a national television show.
“All I can say right now is that we will be featured on a nationally syndicated television show that will begin airing on Dec 8.,” said Jim Mortensen.
With a little investigating and a dash of speculation, The Windsor Times is going to guess that the show he is referring to is “The Great Christmas Light Fight” on ABC. That show is scheduled to begin on Monday, Dec. 8, where families across the country will compete for a large lump of cash for the team with the most elaborate decorations.
Jim Mortensen said that he and his wife Theresa, their children and grandchildren have always enjoyed the holiday season and each year look for ways to give back to their community during a season they describe as “a time for giving.”
“We have always decorated. When we moved to Windsor in 1990, and literally this is the truth, we turned the corner and I saw our house and I said, ‘that house is the perfect house for Christmas, that’s the perfect spot’ and I was sold the second we pulled in,” said Mortensen.
The two-story home at the end of the cul-de-sac on Melva Court doubles as a Christmas wonderland this time of year. The exterior, completely wrapped in brown tarps, mimics the sweet walls of gingerbread, but it may be hard to detect under nearly 50,000 LED lights that dance to the tune of “Wizards in Winter” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra.
Those that pull onto the street at dusk will see it at its best- for there are more than just lights that make it spectacular. There are 40 gingerbread men cutouts placed across the snow-covered lawn, each named for a special person that has touched the family’s life. Another 40 or so cutouts of candy canes and Christmas characters frame the house windows, doors and sit upon the rooftop. Guests can tune into 88.1 FM in their cars to hear the accompanying music to three light show displays.
“My favorite part is that the whole thing brings back childhood memories every year. When my grandmother was decorating for Christmas in the ‘60s she had all sorts of cutouts, that’s where I got the idea,” said Mortensen. “Now I have a few of hers that have survived. It is the memories of putting those up, the memories it brings back of being a little kid. I want to be able to create that for other people so that they can feel some joy for just for a few minutes, forget any ailments and troubles of the world and experience joy for the moment.”
More than ever, this year the Mortensen family knows the feeling of needing to share memories and find moments of joy during hard times, due to the recent loss of their daughter Kristina.
“When we lost our daughter in July, our family was in total turmoil and in this sad sorrowful time, we wondered if we should have a dark year or do what my daughter loved the most, which was to decorate the house,” said Mortensen. “She was the one that pushed me to do it every year and it made her so happy and it makes my grandchildren so happy.”
“I talked to my wife and kids and they said that we need this, that we needed to continue on living. Also a good friend of mine said to me, ‘that sometimes we don’t know why things happen and that it is okay to grieve but remember, your daughter would want you to live a happy life,’ and if you knew my daughter, she did always want others to be happy. That’s my daughter,” he said.
With the help of his wife, Theresa, his daughter Kasandra, son J.J., youngest daughter Kara, and a number of friends, the family worked for three weeks setting up the gingerbread house.
“We also did it for Brooke, my granddaughter, who lost her mother and we are going to share her story. Christmas is the most wonderful time of year and we will have all of the memories of her,” he said.
The family also uses this opportunity to give back to people in need by collecting canned goods from visitors, which are donated to the Redwood Gospel Mission.
“We fully support them, they help people that are hungry during this time of year, and if everyone would bring one canned good and put it in the donation bucket under the cuckoo clock, it would make a big difference,” said Mortensen.
Those who visit The Famous Windsor Gingerbread House at 150 Melva Court between the hours 6 to 9 p.m. during the week, and as Christmas gets closer until 10 p.m., can expect to see three computer generated light programs paired with Christmas music aired through 88.1 FM.
When getting out of the car to donate a canned good, peak inside the double garage to see Santa’s Workshop and many rare animatronic figures.
On the left is a gingerbread village, the Grinch, A Christmas Story collection, Mickey Mouse figures, the collectables from the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer collections, Snoopy and others from the Peanuts collection.
To the right, is Batman, a bat mobile, “Elf” and more.
The Mortensen family asks those who come by to please be aware of neighbors’ driveways and blocking the court entrance.
