Whether pre-bought from a local bakery or made fresh in your oven, Gingerbread Houses give your children and teenagers the opportunity to transform your home with wonderful aromas and festive decorations that are oh so good enough to eat…. they love being creative and enjoy it all the more when they can eat their art supplies. From the very simple designs for those busy moms and dads to challenging art project for those artists among us, we’ve got it all. We’ve also included some gingerbread recipes for holiday gifts, Hanukkah and potlucks… Let the decorating begin!!!

Graham Crackers - Milk or juice carton base

Gingerbread Flat Sheets from Wilton Cookie Molds

Not an architect or contractor? You don’t have to be to make gingerbread houses. Use orange juice and milk cartons and decorate with plain graham crackers, frosting and candies. Shoe boxes and other sturdy boxes are perfect as the structure and by adding a cardboard angled roof and voila, instant house ready to be cemented with a basic white frosting and gingerbread siding.

Too busy to bake? Ask your local bakery to make you gingerbread "sheets" for walls, roofs and doors. If you feel challenged by this adventure, a local craft stores and mail order catalogues have gingerbread house molds that make it easy to create your building. Don’t forget the fabulous Rice Krispies treat recipe, these easily mold to shapes. Put holiday ginger potpourri in your teakettle on a low burner on your stove and it will fill the house with the aromas of the season.

Too busy but want to bake? Use a gingerbread mix from your grocery store.

Children’s Party? Sure, why not. Make it simple by taking the no-bake alternative and using graham crackers, prepared store-bought frostings, mini candy decorations and milk cartons. Create a one-sided gingerbread house invitations from brown construction paper and trim with buttons, scraps of material, lace trim and write the party details on the back. Prepare a work area by laying down plastic tablecovers and give each child a large white Styrofoam plate as their personal palette. Allow 1 to 1-1/2 hours for decorating and be sure to encourage the children with ideas (see below). Everyone wins an award, such as "most beautiful", "most frosting used", "most holiday decorations", "cleverest", etc. The children will take their artwork home with them, so for refreshments, present each guest with a gingerbread boy or gingerbread girl with their name in frosting on it or pancakes in the shape of gingerbread boys and girls. Remember to have lots of hot chocolate and whipped cream! While the children are eating their treats, read them the Gingerbread Boy story (see end of this article).

"Foundation"

Cover your work area with a plastic tablecover or waxed paper for easy clean up. If your house will have an outside (lawn, gardens, etc.), use a large heavy-duty piece of cardboard covered in aluminum foil. For smaller versions, use large Styrofoam white plates. Be sure to use basic white frosting to "cement" your house, trees, lampposts, etc. to the base.

"Blueprints"
You will find plans for one-room house, Victorian house, chapel, country store, log cabin to help you build your gingerbread house. Offer suggestions to the children that a gingerbread house can also be Santa’s Workshop, a reindeer barn, Mrs. Claus’s kitchen, toy shop or even a replica of your own home. If you live in the big city, then why not make an apartment building using a tall milk container and adding lots of windows.

"Building Supplies"

Bread sticks (logs, rafters and beams), shredded wheat cereal (thatched roofs), wafer cookies (roofing tiles), mini chocolate candy bars (doors, shutters and shingles), Candy Kisses (church bell and roof decorations), lollipops (road sings), jelly beans (fireplace stones), fruit leathers (window shades), ice cream cones (trees), and candy canes with gumdrops (lamp posts) are just some ideas. For a more complete list of building supplies and their uses, click here.

"Construction and Finishing Touches"

Step by Step instructions are all laid out but remember to let the kids have fun… and enjoy the mistakes because it will cause even more creativity that you would ever have imagined!

General Plans

Dormers, Chimney and Windows

Set-up time: Allow gingerbread structures/frosting to dry overnight so they will be stable.

"Landscaping"

Flower cake decorations (garden), gumdrops (bushes), brown sugar (walkways and flowerbeds), pretzel sticks (fence posts), nuts (stones) and rock candy (rocks). Click here for details.

"Christmas Decorations"

Use Life Savers (wreaths), Red Hots and M&M candies (Christmas tree balls), white frosting (snow), powdered sugar (frost), melted hard candies (stained glass windows), colored sprinkles (Christmas lights), Fruit Loop cereal (Christmas railings) and marshmallows (snowmen) are some ideas.

"People and Animals"
Animal Crackers (add scarf decorations), Graham Cracker Teddy Bears (decorate in Santa suits), buy ready made from your bakery and for homemade, use cookie cutters or trace stencils onto cardstock and use for pattern on the cookie dough. Using a little blob of frosting, the people and animals will stand up on the base or to the sides of the house.

People and Animal Patterns: Use cookie cutters, cut figures out of coloring books, etc. Trace pattern onto a sturdy piece of cardboard or poster board and voila, you have patterns!

Place your pattern on Gingerbread dough with a sharp pointy paring knife, bake, cool, decorate. To stand the figure around the gingerbread house, place it in a blob of thick frosting and voila, its standing!

Have fun and be creative!

BASIC GINGERBREAD RECIPE

ROYAL ICING CEMENT ("not" edible)

ALMOST BUTTERCREAM CEMENT (edible)

FONDANT (to make ornaments)

GINGERBREAD GIFT RECIPES

A lovely Gingerbread Story to share at your 'Gingerbread House Party'

The Gingerbread Man
A story from long, long ago…

Once upon a time a little old woman and a little old man lived in a little old house. One day the little old woman decided to make a gingerbread man. She cut him out of dough and put him in the oven to bake. After a while she said to herself, "That gingerbread man must be ready by now. "She opened the oven door. Up jumped the gingerbread man, and away he ran, out the front door. As he ran he shouted, "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" The little old woman ran, but she couldn't catch the gingerbread man. He ran past the little old man, who was working in the garden. "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" The little old man ran, but he couldn't catch the gingerbread man. The gingerbread man ran past the cow at the well. "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" The cow ran...but she couldn't catch that gingerbread man. He ran between two picnicking bears. "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" The bears jumped up and ran after him. They ran, and ran... but they couldn't catch that gingerbread man! Soon, the gingerbread man came to a fox lying by the side of a river. He shouted, "Run, run, as fast as you can, You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man!" I've run away from a little old woman, a little old man, a cow, and two picnicking bears, and I can run away from you! But the sly fox just laughed and said, "If you don't get across this river quickly, you will surely get caught. Hop on my tail, and I'll carry you across." The gingerbread man saw that he had no time to lose. He quickly hopped onto the fox's tail. "The water's getting deep," said the fox. "Climb up on my back so you won't get wet." And the gingerbread man did. "Oh," said the fox. "The water's even deeper! Climb up on my head so you won't get wet!" And the gingerbread man did. "It's too deep!" cried the fox. "Climb onto my nose so you won't get wet!" And the gingerbread man did... Then, with a flick of his head, the fox tossed the gingerbread man into his mouth. His jaws snapped shut... and that was the end of the gingerbread man!

About the Author

Kimberly Lainson
MaryAnn-n-Kimberly@thepartyworks.com

The Party Works
Mary Ann & Kimberly, a mother and daughter team have created their sites http://www.thepartyworks.com and http://www.cakeworkscentral.com to provide a treasure trove of free kids birthday parties, baby showers and cake decorating ideas. They are here to help and will become your celebration destination and Enhancing Everyday Celebrations.... Their dream is to help parents and grandparents create lasting celebration memories and not be afraid to have 10 children running around in their living room. They have expanded these ideas to also help people have great baby and bridal showers, holiday parties too! Lots of FREE ideas, games, party plans and help if you need it.