"A gingerbread house like the one on the cover is as much fun to make as
to look at, and you may be as whimsical as you like with its decoration."

—The Cooking of Germany (Time-Life Books,1969)

The parents assist the children
in assembling the gingerbread house.
Stiff cardboard patterns, spicy cakes
fragrantly baking, fixed young faces.

Windows are cut out with a sharp knife,
shutters and trim outlined with jelly beans.
Parents make sure children don't forget
to make a chimney. A chimney is essential.

How much fun it is! Marshmallow snow,
half-timbering of cinnamon sticks,
shingles of overlapping gingersnaps.
And the final touch — a marzipan Star

of David stuck over the the chocolate bar
front door. Its six points will alert
everyone that inside is a wicked witch
who must burn to death in an oven.

Some parents deny the witch, the fire,
the blond, blue-eyed darlings who shoved
the body in, skipped home. No once upon
a time. Everyone lives happily ever after.