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GEORGETOWN — Williamson County’s tax office is celebrating the holiday season in Texas fashion.
In a video posted Tuesday, Dec. 12, which was National Gingerbread Day, Deanna Vaters of the county’s tax office gave an inside look at her Buc-ee’s gingerbread house creation.
Vaters said making a gingerbread house has been a yearly tradition and one that she has done for six years for her county office. She credits her husband Paul for this year’s theme.
“We always stop at Bucee’s, that’s kind of what gets our vacations started,” Vaters said. “When we were there … my husband said ‘Hey, maybe we should just do a Buc-ee’s.’ That’s how we came up with the concept.”
The partially edible Bucee’s model, which Vaters said took her and husband about four weeks to build, is at the county tax office in Georgetown at 904 S. Main St.
She refers to the creation as a “candy house” since there is so much candy involved with it. The candy house is made up of candy canes, pretzels, cookies, graham crackers and other candies, Vaters said.
Vaters said she is choosy about what materials she buys, such as using cinnamon graham crackers because they don’t crack as easily and candy with a flat side rather than round candy.
“We make up about 10 pounds of (Royal Icing) for each build,” Vaters said. “It’s a lot of candy. We’ll buy candy thinking we’ve bought enough, but then end up having to go back for more.
To make it more life-like, Vaters added toy cars, Bucee’s logos and gas pumps to the scene.
She also placed cut out pictures of her coworkers portrayed as visitors to the convenience store. Some cutouts are pumping gas while others are posing in front of the beaver statue.
“We plan out what pictures we’ll need for the theme and then I have the staff in the office pose,” Vaters said. “Paul prints and cuts the figures out using a Cricut machine. He also prints out all the accessories, hats and scarves for example, using the Cricut.”
Vaters and her husband have previously made gingerbread houses to look like the Williamson County Historic Courthouse, the Cedar Park Tax Annex, a castle, a Halloween neighborhood and a Hallmark village.
