At the base of a towering, now unlit, Christmas-like tree stands a home that could distract Hansel and Gretel from their mission of eating the gingerbread home of the witch in that beloved fairy tale. And though the cedar wood and fake candy of this Good Hope home wouldn’t serve as a tasty treat, the family inside is a far cry from the witch those children encountered.

“I’ve been doing the outside probably 12, 15 years,” Keith Smith said. “This is the first year we’ve done the house in a gingerbread theme.”

Up until this year, the Smiths decorated a tree in their front yard like a Christmas tree. But now, with the tree reaching 35 feet into the sky, the expense has grown too great. Keith Smith said last year he had to rent a truck to reach the tree’s top, and that cost several hundred dollars.

“I was just laying there one night and I thought, why not a gingerbread house,” Keith Smith said.

The Smiths did not purchase any of the candy decorations ready-made, with the exception of two candy cane arches. Instead they used thick Styrofoam to create the gingerbread men, lollipops and wrapped candy.

The couple worked as a team, with Shelby drawing and painting the shapes and Keith cutting them out. She said it took about two weeks to make all of the pieces, with Keith Smith working on his part after work each night. He said it took another three days to place everything on the house, working with the help of family and neighbors.

“Daddy’s neighbors take opportunity to call,” their daughter Kristie Earnest said. “They call if any of the lights are out.”

“We wouldn’t tell them what we were going to do this year,” Shelby Smith said.

“The curiosity finally killed them. They came walking across the field,” Earnest said.

“They just jumped in, helping with the blow ups,” Keith Smith said.

In addition to the gingerbread decorations and lights, a dozen inflatable characters dot the Smiths’ front yard. From the time they go up after Thanksgiving until they come down during the first weekend of January, the Smiths leave those inflatables and the Christmas lights turned on 24 hours a day.

“My electricity bill last year when we had the Christmas tree, it went up about $150 for the month,” Keith Smith said. He has not yet received an electric bill during this year’s holiday season.

“He does it mostly for the grandkids,” Earnest said.

“The grandkids and the almost grandkids,” Keith Smith added. The couple has two grandchildren, but several family friends also claim the Smiths as their own.

“They love it,” Shelby Smith said.

The Smiths said Saturday that the house has already had plenty of visitors. In addition to family and neighbors who enjoy the display, members of their church, Daystar Church, have also paid the gingerbread house a visit.

“The church toured,” Earnest explained. “They all got on the church bus and came over here.”

Though the outside decor will be the first thing visitors notice, the family’s festive display isn’t restricted to the front yard. The Smiths have three decorated Christmas trees in the house. One, in 7-year-old son Travis’s bedroom, is themed with firemen and fire truck ornaments. Another’s branches are laden with television and movie characters like Sponge Bob Square Pants and Barney.

But the full-sized tree in the home’s front room boasts the most ornaments.

“My mom likes a little tree with her ornaments,” Earnest said.

“She’s been collecting them ever since we’ve been married,” Keith Smith said of his wife of 37 years.

“We’ve still got a lot (of decorations) that aren’t out there,” said Shelby Smith. Her husband illustrated that point with a trip to their Christmas shed, which still held several lawn figures and decorations.

“We were afraid we’d look too redneck if we got too much more out there,” Shelby Smith said.

“We add every year,” Earnest said.