The gymnasium of the Centre Hall-Potter Elementary School looked like an aerial view of a housing development. Rows and rows of houses, adorned with brightly colored Christmas decorations and pine trees in their front yards, filled the space.
The houses were made of gingerbread, and were decorated by the students in pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, who gathered this week to work on the sugary creations.
Groups of students took turns decorating their creations in 30- to 45-minute shifts throughout the school day. Decorations included favorite candies — Hershey’s kisses, licorice, M&Ms, candy canes, pretzel sticks, gumdrops, bubble gum and Life Savers — as well as plenty of green and white icing. School staff members and Parent-Teacher Group volunteers helped guide the students as they created their masterpieces.
The gingerbread house project was started five years ago by Keith and Heather Luse, of Centre Hall, who operate Delectable Delights, a cake-, cookie- and pastry-making business. The Luses made gingerbread houses with their oldest daughter, Isabella, then decided to extend the project to include the entire elementary school.
The Parent-Teacher Group supplied the 300 gingerbread house kits. The Luses donated nearly 500 pounds of green and white icing, and a group of parents spent more than three hours assembling and mounting the houses on plywood bases. Heather Luse said the Parent-Teacher Group and individual donations fund the decoration items, which her husband buys throughout the year at post-holiday sales, overstock and surplus sales and other venues.
The students’ creativity was shown with imaginative decorating schemes at all grade levels. Some houses showed roofs shingled with shredded wheat, candies or pretzel sticks, while front yards sported green-iced Christmas trees made from inverted ice cream cones. Licorice chimneys were on display, as well as some lollipop light poles.
The houses were on display after school, then taken home that evening to be enjoyed with family members and friends.
