Easy Gingerbread Houses

One of our traditional holiday activities is decorating gingerbread houses. Since I am not known for my prowess in the kitchen, we use an idea for making gingerbread houses that I learned years ago at our former homeschool group's Christmas party.


To construct the gingerbread houses, you need 4 whole graham crackers - 2 for the sides and 2 for the roof. The only preparation needed is to cut 2 whole graham crackers for each gingerbread house as shown below. The cutting can be a little tricky - purchase an extra box of graham crackers, just in case.
Icing is used as the glue to hold the house together and to hold the decorative elements in place. Royal icing works well, but we use the fluffy, Wilton-style, fancy buttercream-type icing. While I have made it lots of times in the past, I now simply purchase it from our local cake shop. This is the type of icing that is thick in consistency and could be used for making icing roses, for example. The icing from the can in the bakery aisle at the grocery store is just not sturdy or strong enough to work well with this project.


Purchasing the bits and pieces for the gingerbread houses is the fun part. This year I purchased (or gathered from my pantry) the following items:

• gingerbread men cookies


• mini rainbow vanilla wafers


• gumdrops


• red and green M & Ms


• mini candy canes


• fruit and toasted O's (generic Froot Loops)


• Twizzlers NIBS cherry bits


• Necco wafers


• Peeps snowmen


• sugar wafer cookies


• cinnamon decors


• 1/2 sheet cake boards (one for each child)

My daughter prepared an icing bag for each of them using a sturdy ziplock bag. After putting the icing in the bag, she snipped a small amount off the tip on one end. My youngest did need help with constructing his gingerbread house. I have heard that some people use a small carton or other base to build the house around to make it sturdier, but we have not done that. It does sound like a good idea, particularly if doing this project with younger children.

Then, the fun part - the decorating! I am always amazed by the creativity of my children in making their gingerbread houses.Amber's gingerbread house and yard... Duncan's gingerbread house and yard... Mason's gingerbread house and yard...

Graham cracker gingerbread houses are also a fun project for other holidays. Last year, we made Halloween gingerbread houses instead of doing the project at Christmas. With all of the cute Easter candy, cute bunny houses could be made as well.

Easy graham cracker gingerbread houses Work for Me! If you would like to see what works for other bloggers, check out Works for Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.