Bah. royal icing is far tougher than "melted gummi bears." And if you're serious about it, you bake your own gingerbread. How else are you going to get cool shapes?

We built this guy in 2007. By NPR's standards, fragile as hell. Yet when we took it apart in January, I needed to use a ball peen hammer.

What's really funny is that of course civil engineers would tell you to build a bunker out of stock materials. That's why nobody lets them design anything. Compare and contrast: For the past 20 years, Seattle architecture firms have held a friendly competition to show off ostentatious gingerbread houses for charity. they hold it in the Sheraton every year. Here's Callison's 2012 entry.

Here's the rest of the gallery.