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The von Claparede-Crola family's finished gingerbread house sits on the kitchen counter waiting to be eaten over the next few weeks.

Charlotte von Claparede-Crola, 14, says it's more fun to eat the gingerbread house than to decorate it, as she steals a bite of a gummi bear, a traditional German candy.

Assorted candies sit in a separated muffin pan before they are applied to the gingerbread house at the von Clapared-Crola family home in Floyd.

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Meaningful dates on the German Christmas calendar:

• Dec. 1 (or the first Sunday after Nov. 26): the first day of the Christmas season and the day a lebkuchenhaus, or gingerbread house, is traditionally set up.
• Dec. 4: St. Barbara’s Day, a day when families bring an elderberry or cherry twig inside and hope that it will bloom by Christmas.
• Dec. 5: On this evening, German families place shoes by the front door and wait for St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children, to come.
• Dec. 6: Nikolaustag (St. Nicholas Day). On this morning, the shoes have been stuffed with gifts or twigs by St. Nicholas when he visited during the night. He also takes the first bite of the gingerbread house.
• Dec. 24: Heiligabend (Christmas Eve) is when the tannenbaum, or tree, is brought to the house by the Christkindl, or Christ Child. The Christkindl also brings decorations, presents and a Nativity scene.
• Dec. 25: Weihnachten (Christmas). This day is a day of relaxation and a big Christmas meal, often featuring roast goose.

Recipe for Barbara von Claparede-Crola’s Lebkuchen (gingerbread)

The chimney had been "mortared," the doghouse erected and the roof dusted with "snow."

But it would still be days before St. Nicholas took the ceremonial first nibble of the von Claparede-Crola family's gingerbread house.

Until then, Charlotte, 14, and Christina, 12, could only dream of the moment when they would raze the candy corn fence.

"Once the first fence post is broken down, it's like full war on the house," said their father, Clemens von Claparede-Crola, with a chuckle.

Building a gingerbread house, or lebkuchenhaus, from scratch is just one German Christmas tradition the Floyd family follows each year.

Their homemade Advent calendar, the real candles on their tannenbaum (Christmas tree) and the gift-filled shoes on St. Nicholas Day all remind Barbara and Clem von Claparede-Crola what Christmas is like in their native Germany.

It also teaches their daughters to embrace their heritage and a holiday that is more about togetherness than loot.

"That is why we talk German at home, why we do all the traditions in German," Barbara said, "because I want them to know that their roots are German."

From Frankfurt to Floyd

In Germany, Weihnachten (Christmas) is a religious holiday marked with elaborate open markets in the streets of every city. But inside homes, decorations are humble and simple traditions rule over extravagance.

When Barbara was growing up, her mother always made a gingerbread house for Christmas even though many families did not. Per tradition, the house was assembled on Dec. 1 and displayed until Dec. 6, when it could finally be eaten.

Barbara carried on the tradition when she became an adult, baking and decorating a house for her nieces, nephews and godchildren every year.

But her successful career at an American advertising agency in Germany wasn't enough; she longed to find a mate and have children of her own.

At age 39, she met Clem at a birthday party in Frankfurt.

Clem, who was born and raised in Germany, had traveled from his home in Floyd County to Frankfurt for a friend's 50th birthday celebration.

Five days after the party, he proposed. They were married three months later.

"I was almost 40, so I said 'yes' immediately," said Barbara, now 56. "People thought I am totally nuts."

Today, the von Claparede-Crolas live on the 28 acres in Floyd County where Clem, a 62-year-old mechanical engineer, settled when he first came to America in 1983.

The house he built for his family is as secluded as the witch's sugary cottage in "Hansel and Gretel," the fairy tale that popularized gingerbread houses in the 19th century.

Trimming the house

On Dec. 1, Barbara assembled this year's lebkuchenhaus, which she baked using her family recipe and a homemade cardboard pattern. The heavy crunch and rich, spicy flavor of the von Claparede-Crola gingerbread is a far cry from the graham cracker and Elmer's glue houses Charlotte once made in school.

"That just wasn't fun," she said. "Because the fun part is eating it!"

By the time the family drove home from church in a frigid rain last Sunday, the girls were ready to exchange their tights for jeans and aprons and tackle the job of decorating the gingerbread house.

While Clem watched a flock of wild turkeys in the back yard through binoculars, his wife and daughters bent over their gingerbread house and glued M&M's, mints, gummi bears, Kissables and other colorful candies to the walls with technicolor frosting.

Each year, the house turns out a bit different. But it always sports "stained glass" window panes, a tiny fireplace visible through the front door, gingerbread trees and a puff of "smoke," or cotton, coming from the chimney.

Also, the house always has a tiny gingerbread doghouse in the yard -- a nod to the family's 8-year-old Jack Russell terrier, Casper.

The "yard" is made of a piece of plastic foam wrapped in aluminum foil. To create grass, Barbara brushes the foil with sugar glaze and covers it with green sugar sprinkles.

A front path is made with brown sprinkles and the fence is built out of "reindeer corn," or red, white and green candy corn.

After the house was finished, it was displayed on a pedestal in the living room, where everyone could admire its cheerful detail until St. Nicholas Day.

Waiting for St. Nicholas

Wednesday evening, each member of the von Claparede-Crola family left a shoe by the front door for St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children. Good boys and girls get gifts while naughty boys and girls get twigs.

"Of course, the girls always have a little twig" even if they've been good, Barbara said, "because it looks funny."

When St. Nicholas comes the night of Dec. 5, he is always accompanied by his donkey, so the children leave the beast a plate of sugar next to St. Nicholas' cookies.

After St. Nicholas Day, every family member gets a bite of the house every night until Christmas Eve, the height of the Weihnachten celebration. In Germany, Christmas officially begins on Dec. 24 and ends on Jan. 6, the 12th day of Christmas.

For a day or two before Christmas Eve, the living room doors in the von Claparede-Crola house are usually locked to keep the girls from peeking in. When they were little, they thought angels brought the tree, decorations, presents and Nativity scene.

This year will be the first year Charlotte and Christina will be allowed to help decorate the tree, but the doors will still be locked so the "angels" can bring the rest.

After everyone has dressed in their best on Dec. 24, Barbara rings a bell and the doors to the living room are thrown open.

The family then sings Christmas carols and lights real candles on the Christmas tree before standing in front of the Nativity scene and retelling the story of Jesus' birth.

After all of these traditions, which Clem jokingly calls "obstacles" to opening presents, the gift-giving begins.

But in the von Claparede-Crola house, gift opening is not a flurry of paper and bows. Instead, each gift is opened one by one while the rest of the family watches.

"It is very, very modest what we are doing," Barbara said. "I'm not following this totally commercialized thing that you have to buy an iPod or whatever."

Dinner on Dec. 24 is a simple one of German potato salad and knackwurst, followed by Barbara's homemade cookies and Christstollen, a delicious German fruitcake packed with dried fruit, nuts and marzipan and frosted with a sugary glaze.

At 10 or 10:30 p.m., the family heads to Christmas Mass at St. Peter's Anglican Catholic Church in Christiansburg to finish the most festive day of their Christmas season.

The following two days are also German holidays, but they are traditionally spent relaxing with family -- exactly what Barbara needs after baking, decorating and reminiscing her way through her favorite German holiday season.

"My husband is always complaining, 'You are doing too much and working your butt off,' " she said with a laugh. "But I know that my kids will always remember. It is always something special for them."