Sweet homes

By Ed Merrison
A SELF-CONFESSED Christmas junkie from Upwey has taken great delight in giving sick children a festive high.
Heather Martin has been donating homemade gingerbread houses to the children’s ward at Angliss Hospital for about 10 years.
Made to her grandmother’s recipe and lovingly decorated with icing, jelly beans, freckles, smarties and other goodies, the houses give the kids a good dose of sugar, spice and all things nice at Christmas.
Children’s ward nurse Julie Fitzgerald said the houses were a treat for those laid up in hospital over the holidays.
“They really appreciate it at a time when they’re not always happiest in hospital,” she said.
“The houses always look so beautiful and the kids can hardly wait to break them up and eat them.”
But wait they must.
After Ms Martin drops off her gingerbread gift on the first day of advent every year, it goes on display while kids lick their lips and imagine tearing it wall from wall.
“It’s a couple of weeks before they can get stuck into them as any kid would,” Ms Fitzgerald said.
“It’s a free for all.”
The houses that go to the Angliss are among 10 to 15 Ms Martin gives away every year for fundraisers, but she insists the pleasure is all hers.
“I love making them. It’s all part of the Christmas obsession, I guess,” she said.
The festive fascination runs in the family, from her grandmother, who passed on the joys of gingerbread, to her mother, who always made Christmas so special but died when Ms Martin was young.
Since then, Ms Martin has been busy spoiling her own children, Mark and Kelly, who still come around at 6am on Christmas morn to a pair of gift-stuffed stockings. Both Mark and Kelly are expecting children in January and one suspects the new arrivals will not know what has hit them when Christmas with grandma rolls around.
The kindness extends to strangers knocking on the door to the family home throughout December – be they plumbers, sparkies or even journalists – all are invited to dip into a felt reindeer loaded with wrapped gifts.
But Ms Martin herself is not particularly fussed about receiving presents.
“I’d rather just give and have lots of people around me,” she said. “Those are the sorts of things that make Christmas really lovely.”
Her spirit is perhaps encapsulated in the image of one of her perfect gingerbread houses.
Sweet, generous and with amazing attention to detail, Ms Martin and her constructions will bring joy and satisfaction to many this Christmas.
It is proof positive that a willingness to share lays a strong foundation for happy human relationships.