Gingerbread house at the Claremont Hotel
Gingerbread house at the Claremont Hotel

Thanksgiving is just a brief memory away and now it is time for Christmas. The Claremont Hotel has put up an enormous gingerbread house in its lobby to usher in the holiday season. This picture is deceptive because it doesn’t show how large the house it.

Trust me, it’s big.

Frances Dinkelspiel, Berkeleyside and CItyside co-founder, is a journalist and author. Her first book, Towers of Gold: How One Jewish Immigrant Named Isaias Hellman Created California, published in November...