Nothing says Christmastime like making and decorating an adorable gingerbread house. And while this may look like a Herculean task, suitable for only the savviest of bakers and do-it-yourselfers, nothing could be further from the truth. There are several ways for you and your little ones to build gingerbread houses together that Hansel and Gretel themselves would be proud to call home.
If you really want to go the simple route, you can buy premade gingerbread houses that you merely ice and cover with candy decorations. If you’d like slightly more of a challenge, make your own houses out of graham crackers. Use the rectangular crackers as the building blocks of the wall and ceiling and “glue” them together using royal icing in a piper’s bag. There are many step-by-step demonstrations for this to be found online.
Place an assortment of your children’s favorite candies in the cups of a large muffin tin for easy access and to minimize mess. Get creative and use things like thin licorice to trim the house and create a path going up to it, use round or square pretzels to create the windows and doors, and be generous with all other candies stuck into the white icing like snow. When making a gingerbread house with a child the important thing is not for the house to look professionally made, the messier it is the more charm it will have.
This is one of my favorite holiday activities with my kids! I truly hope they never grow out of loving it.
I’m not sure which I like better – decorating the gingerbread house, or eating it!! haha