Gingerbread houses are one of the iconic parts of modern day Christmas. Most cities have gingerbread house decorating contests and many malls use elaborate houses as decor for window displays. There is something so festive about the little homes frosted and draped in candies! Not to mention the cute little gingerbread people who they belong to!
We did not decorate gingerbread houses as a family every year when we were little, but we did decorate them together a few Christmases ago! Our dad bought this fun kit where you actually bake the gingerbread and then assemble the houses. We all had a BLAST frosting walls and helping the grandkids pick out candy to add.
Check out these super cool grandparents making a fun tradition!
Several members of This Blue Dress enjoy doing this tradition yearly. Read about some of our experiences!
Mariah’s Gingerbread Houses
Someday I’d like to create huge, elaborate gingerbread houses with my family. But for now, with all these little hands, we decorate little messy houses.
We have used kits before, but we finally tried baking our own gingerbread in 2018! I’m not sure we’ll go back, although I love the convenience of kits. Everything smelled so amazing, and my kids loved being in the kitchen for the extra time it took to make, shape, and bake the houses!
Here are our creations from the last few years!
Maegan’s Gingerbread Tradition
Gingerbread is one of my favorite cookies ever! I love eating them throughout the year. My family loves seeing the Gingerbread Village at Crown Center in Kansas City. We also make fancy homemade gingerbread houses most years with my in-laws. I love seeing the old spattered patterns for each part of the houses and the huge array of candy for decorating and especially eating the “scraps”.
We like to do a themed house about something significant from that particular year. One of my favorites was this sweet “Santa Age In Place” gingerbread house the year my husband received his Master’s in Aging Services Management. I’ll update with pics when we do our house this year!
MaLee’s Gingerbread Houses
My gingerbread house traditions started with my friend Alaina Leverenz. She invited us over every December in high school to make Graham Cracker gingerbread houses. We would team up and try to outdo one another by adding different stories or windows or other novelties to our team’s houses. It was SO MUCH FUN! We loved making the houses together and then snacking on the candies while we played games. Those are some of my favorite memories of all of us getting together.
So after high school I decided to carry on the tradition even though I couldn’t be with all of my friends to do it. Taylor and I make them together every year, and sometimes my Utah family joins in also! They are super simple and fun to do with kids and adults of all ages. You just need graham crackers, food coloring, and any kind of candy you might want to decorate with! I personally buy a mix of traditional Christmas candies and candy that we like eating. Frost the edges of the graham crackers to hold them together and build a house! It’s simple, inexpensive, and lots of fun.
Here are some pictures of the ones Taylor and I made a few years ago.
How do you make gingerbread houses at your home? If it isn’t something you have done before, I highly recommend adding it to your list of Christmas traditions! It is one of my absolute favorites.
-MaLee
You can find more of our Christmas Traditions here!