Richard Gleeson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 17/99) - Don't ever tell Karl Kuzilla there's no such thing as Santa Claus.

First of all, he's probably bigger than you and, secondly, you'll be wasting your breath.

"I believe in Christmas and I will until the day I die," said Kuzilla, the new chef at Sam's Monkey Tree Restaurant.

Kuzilla's belief has this year taken the form of a Santa's village, the likes of which Yellowknife has seen only once before.

That was nine-and-a-half years ago, when Kuzilla built his first candy house to be raffled off to raise money for St. Joe's school.

This year Kuzilla has outdone himself. He has created a Santa's village, built completely of chocolate- covered cookies, candy, gingerbread, icing and popcorn.

The village includes Santa's workshop and house, Deer Manor (for the reindeer), Elf Condo and a wood shed, surrounded by trees, snow and a babbling brook with a waterfall.

"It's good for us as well as the school," said Kuzilla. "If you support the community, they support you."

It's the fourth candy construction he has completed. The previous one in Yellowknife was Kuzilla's first. He built two while away in Victoria, one to raise money for a hospital burn unit and another to raise money to buy underprivileged kids Christmas gifts.

The winner of the candy house built for the burn unit donated it to the hospital to ease the trauma of the kids who were being treated there.

This, his biggest creation, is to again raise money for school equipment for St. Joe's. Tickets for the raffle go on sale at the restaurant starting next week.

"There's going to be two kids from the school here each evening (starting this) week for two to three hours," said Kuzilla. "We'll give them dinner and some drinks and they will be selling tickets."

Tickets will cost $1 apiece. The house, which took about 300 hours to build, is valued at $2,000. Sam's Monkey Tree Restaurant covered the cost of the time and materials that went into it.

Those materials include 35 packages of chocolate-covered cookies, 140 pounds of icing, and numerous slabs of inch-thick gingerbread used to support the structures.

The village weighs more than 400 pounds.

So, if the trick or treat take has dried up, here's a golden chance to restock the supply.