Other Centerpieces

If you simply want something festive on the table that suggests Christmas without the grand display of dishes and desserts, you have many options. A gingerbread house is always fun. Humperdinck’s opera Hänsel and Gretel did much to spread its popularity.³ The gingerbread recipe is well suited for this purpose, but roll it thicker than for small cookies.

Of course, you can have a great cake, like the Twelfth Night Cake, ornamented with sugar or plaster figures. Or you can make a large Christmas “pie,” like the one described in this 1916 account: “It was made in a cheese box, wrapped about with Christmas greens to conceal the box, the crust being made of brown paper, generously sprinkled with sugar. The crust was nicked enough to cut easily. And oh, the presents that came out of that blessed pie! Just the smaller gifts and favors. Dolls’ tea sets and such things were made into many small packages; and there were nut and candy toys which were jokes on the grown-ups.”⁴