Gingerbread Shingles, Cake Icing Ornament Christmas Store’s Exterior

Christmas visions of sugarplums may dance through some heads, but for Laguna Beach art and antiques dealer Richard Yeakel, it’s gingerbread. Lots of it. Enough to cover the front of his new store that sells Christmas ornaments, many made by local artists.

Yeakel is using an ultrahard version of the stuff as shingles on the outside of his beachfront Laguna Christmas Store. The holiday look is completed with icicles and cake icing.

“The Coastal Commission approved the colors, but they didn’t ask me what it was made of,” said Yeakel, who owns three galleries in Laguna Beach and co-owns another in New York.

Lest would-be cookie monsters get any ideas, the gingerbread is no longer edible. It has been treated with varnish and glue to withstand the elements.