OT-gingerbread houses

[la79al]

My sister wants me to bring the stepkids up to my moms house on Saturday so she can make gingerbread houses with them. She has the best of intentions but she has no concept of taking on this task with the kids. She is going to get a kit, without realizing that the thing has to sit overnight for the walls and roof to stick together and then only half the candy will stay on the houses anyhow. Since she is being so sweet in offering, I want her to have a good experience with this. Any tips or suggestions on how to do a neat yet fairly easy gingerbread house?

 

[poohfriend77]

I'd suggest to her that she put the house together the day before, so the kids aren't sitting around waiting for the icing to dry. Put a cheap plastic tablecloth on the table and old t-shirts on the kids. Then let them go wild! Half the fun is in making a mess and sampling the candy "decorations." Don't worry about the final product. It's the process that counts. This will be a wonderful memory for your stepkids, and it's great that your sister wants to do something special for them.

 

[PlutoPony]

We got a gingerbread kit from Costco this year and it went together surprisingly well, with minimal drying time for the house structure - like 10 minutes! Quite a change from what I remember going thru when I was a kid. The "glue" / icing must be pretty good in this one and the decorations have stayed right where DS put them ~ 2 weeks ago. So this adventure may have greater potential than you think..!

 

[Dad_Z]

I have done a lot of Gingerbread houses. You can actually find kits where the house is already assembled. They give you icing that you just mix with water. If the icing gets too runny you can always add some more powdered sugar to stiffen it a little. If she has the kits with the house not already put together then (like someone else said) put the house together the day before to let them harden. I have found the Wilton kits to work very well. Good luck! MomZ

 

[K and K's Mommy]

My 87 year old grandma just did one with my DD 6. My grandma said it was the most fun she had had all year! Anyway, I know my aunt took her shopping to buy a kit, and it was already put together. I was worried because my grandma doesn't have a lot of hand strength anymore. But, she was able to make the icing per instructions, and DD had tons of fun putting on all the candy. (Or so I am told, I was asked to leave!! )

 

[la79al]

WHERE CAN I GET ONE ALREADY PUT TOGETHER????? That would be super awesome.

 

[mom2my3kids]

I know my local Kroger has the kids..

 

[MamaOfTwoPrincesses]

We had great luck with the one from Target. It goes together very nicely and easily, and is nice and sturdy. You can easily assemble it first and then decorate later. My almost 6 year old had a great time doing this with me yesterday.

 

[Gillian]

Someone got us this as a family gift last year (GREAT idea, btw) and it was so much fun! We put the house together right before we decorated. The pieces fit together well and stayed put. I don't know what brand it was. The icing was pre-mixed but you had to knead it.

They will have fun, don't worry!

 

[K and K's Mommy]

I did not buy the premade one my grandma made with my DD. She and my aunt got it at an outlet mall so who knows. But, I think I have seen them at Bed, Bath, and Beyond. I'm guessing Target, Walmart, Meijer might also have them. Good luck!

 

[graygables]

We always make our own, so I start a few days ahead of decorating to get the walls/roof made and hardened. Here's a secret for you...assemble the house with HOT GLUE, then cover the seams with the piped icing! Face it, nobody's going to eat it, anyway, so it really doesn't matter. The icing is fine to hold the candy on, we've never had a problem with it at all. And, the most important part is the experience and not the product. Let the kids go to town and don't worry if it looks "neat" when it's done!

one more thing...ziploc bags with one corner nipped off makes a great icing bag...

 

[mlraabe]

I just did this with all of my K3 kiddos last week. I actually think the easiest thing is to use a styrofoam meat tray and a small milk carton (think cafeteria). This way you do not have to mess with a kit. Use an egg white icing ( I have the recipe at school). Spread it on the bottom of the tray, stick your milk carton in place, cover the carton with graham crackers using the icing and then use the icing to add candy to the house and yard. My 3 year olds could do it. Kids in our district make these houses through Kindergarden in their classrooms.

Ideas for candy: sugar wafers, peppermints, candy canes, gum drops, marshmallows, m & ms, sugar cones(turn upside down, ice, and decorate the christmas tree!), chocolate chips, really anything you can think of.

The kids took them home that day. They are really hard and durable. The icing hardens within the hour. So much fun and a lot more creative than the kits!

 

[MamaOfTwoPrincesses]

Oh, we used to use non-pareils (those chocolate discs with little tiny white balls) as snow, but we can't any more as they are not peanut safe. But if a PA it not an issue, they make excellent roof shingles!

 

[Mkrop]

We just made individual ones in DS4's preschool class on Tues. Top of a shoe box lid for the yard, half and half contanier for the house. We covered the contanier with frosting and a graham cracker on each side and then we decorated with M&M, starlight mints, starburts(pathway), skittles, ice cream with green frosting and mini m&ms (christmas tree) snap pretzels for windows, vanilla wafers for doors and my favorite Frosted Mini Wheats for the roof, looked very cute. Stuck some Teddy Grahams in gum drops and the family is out in front of the house. Each kid could make their own. It was actually fun.

 

[Debbie7452]

I'm glad that my family is not the only one that has a gingerbread house tradition every year. We have been doing them for years and the kits work great!

I got frustrated with the kids only because they wouldn't let me help at all they took over the whole project and I didn't have anything to do...whine, whine! So last year, I had them each make the graham cracker mini houses and I got to do the big kit house. We put them all together and called it our own little subdivision (I have four kids, LOL).

Definitely cover the table with a vinyl table cloth and take a picture of the mess afterward. These are cherished memories when we look back at them from years past. Also, our family has another kind of destructive tradition. On Christmas Eve, after my big family dinner/get together, the kids with their cousin are given a wooden mallet and they smash the houses and eat them (well mostly the candy gets eaten, I admit). Sounds weird, I know but they enjoy this part of it very much!

 

[jodifla]

My sister wants me to bring the stepkids up to my moms house on Saturday so she can make gingerbread houses with them. She has the best of intentions but she has no concept of taking on this task with the kids. She is going to get a kit, without realizing that the thing has to sit overnight for the walls and roof to stick together and then only half the candy will stay on the houses anyhow. Since she is being so sweet in offering, I want her to have a good experience with this. Any tips or suggestions on how to do a neat yet fairly easy gingerbread house?

My son and I did one a few weeks ago. We were able to decorate it pretty much right way after assembling the house.

 

[lunalibre]

Man, my kids would be FURIOUS if I put together a gingerbread house with hot glue. They want to EAT the thing when they're done.

When my kids wanted to decorate a gingerbread house last year, I wasn't too sure about it. They were adamant about eating it, and none of those kits looked actually edible to me. We compromised and did a "gingerbread-style log cabin" instead. I made very stiff buttercream icing to "glue" together pretzel rods. We used graham cracker sheets for the roof. We did have to put a support underneath the roof to get it to stay. I happened to have a gingerbread-house-shaped cookie tin that was just perfect, but you could use a couple of pint-sized whipping cream/half-and-half/milk cartons too. Once we assembled the house, the kids went to town with the icing and the decorations. It was fun and completely edible.

I also read an idea (Rachel Ray, maybe?) for using rice krispie treats for the walls. You made two pans of treats, then cut them into the appropriate sizes to make the walls of the house and used the graham crackers for the roof. The pictures I saw used cocoa krispies instead of the rice krispies to make a darker house. I would bet you'd need the "milk carton" supports on
the inside for this one, too.

Happy decorating! My kids can't wait to do another house this year!

 

[tadamom]

My DS Kindergarten class is making gingerbread houses at the party on Monday. The assembling the houses w/graham crackers. Their party is only 1 hour long and now I am wondering if they are going to be stable enough for the kids to take them home the same day.