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Building Gingerbread Houses #Craft

December 12, 2011 by OneMommy

What’s better than craft time after lunch?  Craft time you can eat!

I’m talking gingerbread houses, made out of graham crackers, because let’s face it:  it’s faster than baking, and I already had them in the cabinet.  I also already had a packet of gingerbread house icing leftover from a kit we got last year, but if you don’t have icing on hand, you can find a royal icing recipe online.

Before calling the kids together I assembled the houses.

building gingerbread houses
Notice the icing is red.... That's what I had left from the kit...

I originally was going to put slanted roofs on them, but then I started thinking about the delicate touch of my 2 1/2 year old son…. And I decided a flat roof would hold up much better for him.  I did the same for “big sis” to avoid fighting.

To build these all you need are 6 graham cracker squares.   I piped the icing onto the edges of the crackers using a zip-lock bag with the corner cut off.  (I used my finger to squish it when necessary so it would hold…)graham cracker housesAnd for candy?  We got an overload at Halloween; time to use some of it up!  I dug through our collection to find pieces I thought might work.candy craftThe preschooler and I made houses last year, so she got right to work. gingerbread house craft The toddler?  He was pretty sure the candy was supposed to go in his mouth…  Mommy gave him a few extra graham crackers to preserve his house, and eventually we put a few sugary decorations on it, in between bites…toddler Christmas craftOnce the houses were finished, I thought, “Hey, how about using the last two ice cream cones I have left from making Peanut’s castle birthday cake to make a few little Christmas tree?”  So I dug those out of the pantry and got out one more roll of Smarties.

Christmas tree craft
Pretty cute use for stale ice cream cones!

The kids and I had lots of fun making their sugary Christmas decorations.  They’re planing to leave them for Santa this year – unless the toddler eats them first!

edible craft
Our completed village

Have you made gingerbread houses from graham crackers?  Any tips to share?

 

This post was shared on Made by Little Hands Monday and Ladybug Blessings.

Filed Under: Family Friendly Recipes, Kids Crafts Tagged With: Christmas, craft, daughter, holiday, preschooler, recipe, son, toddler

Comments

  1. cathi says

    December 12, 2011 at 10:42 pm

    wow, I love this Idea! I think I will try this with my day care kids. They are 21/2 – 31/2 year olds.

    • admin says

      December 13, 2011 at 4:03 pm

      I bet they’ll love it! Just take my advice, try giving them each a tray to work on so candy doesn’t roll everywhere. And, if I had to do it over again, I think I would have divided the candy up so little guy wouldn’t have had all the candy he wanted to eat just sitting there…. LOL. It did get rid of some Halloween candy, though!

  2. ella says

    December 13, 2011 at 4:44 am

    What an adorable family, graham crackers for ginger bread houses now that’s a great idea 🙂

    • admin says

      December 13, 2011 at 4:04 pm

      I vaguely remember making houses from graham crackers maybe in Girl Scouts or in school… And I’m cheap. So since I had icing left from last year’s kit I just opted to use what I had on hand.

  3. Kristen says

    December 13, 2011 at 10:21 am

    I would have never thought of using the sugar cones. They are perfect for trees!

    I love the picture of your son nibbling on the graham cracker to keep him full and from attacking his house…so cute!

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