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| Copyright ©2005 Allison Ray. All rights reserved.
Updated December 7, 2005 |
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| Gingerbread House Construction and Gingerbread House Decoration Making gingerbread houses are not only easy but a wonderful arts and crafts project for your whole family. It's hard to find arts and craft projects that are fun for all ages- this is definitely one of those projects. Depending on the youngest age of the children making the houses the only thing we have had to watch for is that the chocolate gets hot so the kids chocolate was cooled before giving it to them and we only let them work with candy that they could not choke on. Every year we get together to make gingerbread houses and this year we decided to share the free how to make gingerbread house instructions we have so much fun doing this that we hope your family will too. List of supplies for approx 5-6 gingerbread houses: 8 boxes of graham crackers 12 packages of white bark chocolate M&M's Gum Drops Candy Canes Red Licorice Black Licorice Neco Wafers Pretzels Nuts Oreo Cookies Vanilla Wafers Chocolate Chip Cookies Snack Size Snickers Snack Size Almond Joy Hershey Kisses Peppermints Red and Green Lollypops Ice Cream Cones Wilton Cake Decorating Santa Bobble Heads Ice Cubes Coconut Quart Zip Lock Bags Tin Foil Sturdy Cardboard for house base Microwave Safe Glass Container Marshmallows Tootsie Rolls |
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| The Candy Stash |
| Resident Gingherbread Staff-Poppy, Madeline, Mary, Drew and Aunt Marty |
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| Take the graham crackers and melted chocolate to make the house walls. Use three pieces of graham crackers for and make 4 sections (the front, back and two side walls) wall for long house or two pieces for a square house. Let them harden. Make your two roof sections the same way. |
| Make roof pieces then attach them to the house once the chocolate has hardened. Use pieces of ice lightly swiped over the chocolate to make it harden faster- be careful not to use too much or your house will be soggy- yuck! Attach the roof to the house with melted chocolate. |
| Place the house where you want it on the tin foil covered cardboard base. And decorate! The only thing you have to remember about decorating your gingerbread house it to keep your chocolate soft and liquid so it will make better "glue" for your candy. To cover the tin foil "yard" for your home just spread out some white chocolate and stick the candy to it. We also use coconut to make snow it stickes to the chocolate really nice. |
| The Finished Gingerbread Houses- Beautiful and YUMMY!!! |
| Mary and Drew showing off the dress I made her for Christmas. |
| Marty's house in front with pretty Christmas tree, Poppy's house next to that with the large fense, Drew's house has the two ice cream cone chimneys, Mary's house features a sucker walk way and Liz's house with the Santa on the roof. |
| The Twins 2005 Mary and Madeline |
| Tips for hosting a successful gingerbread house party -Serve a quick and easy lunch prior to making the houses. We usually serve pizza, most people like it and its not too messy to clean up. This will cut down on the candy consumption a little and will balance out some of the sugar people do eat. And have a little snack table for people to graze on during the day. We put out popcorn, chips, chex mix, nuts, fruit-things that don't spoil-the party takes a long time and you don't want anyone to get sick on dip that has been out for 5 hours. - Have a punch bowl with fruit punch, crock pot with hot apple cider and some diet/regular sodas available for your guests to help themselves whenever they need a drink. You'll be too busy melting chocolate and helping the little ones to remember to offer drinks as much as you probably should. -Have one adult to help each child. -Do not invite too many people. You want everyone to have enough space to be creative. -Ask guests to RSVP so you will know exactly how many house boards and other supplies you will need. -Make your gingerbread houses from graham crackers instead of trying to bake gingherbread pieces. I have tried that a dozen times and have never had any success baking the house walls. -Check and double check your list of goodies and add any that we have not thought of. You will need a ton of candy to make pretty houses. If you are not sure if you have enough...buy more! You can always use the extra candy in your chrismas cookies. -Stock up on Holiday PAPER plates, napkins, plastic cups and plastic silverware-make it easy on yourself and your guests. Everyone can snack when they like and just toss the plate. I know you are killing more trees, but you are saving water from washing all the dishes. - Have your cd player already set up with Christmas music before the guests arrive. -Consider purchasing Christmas chef hats and/or aprons. -Have a back up plan for the little ones if they loose interest and a place for them to nap - Christmas coloring pages, Christmas movie on dvd, holiday game(s) or a walk around the block. |