One of my favorite traditions of the holiday season is making Gingerbread Houses! I grew up with my mom making the dough and cutting out the pieces of gingerbread to form into the chalets. We would all gather around the table and decorate the houses in our own unique ways.
Well this year Conner and I decided to take this tradition to our friends. We coordinated a family house building night where each couple was given the supplies to build their house…aka a bag of icing, two roof panels, a front and back side, two small walls, and a door. We gave our friends a list of holiday candies that worked well for building houses and challenged them to bring a bag or two in order to build their masterpieces.
I was shocked that not a single person brought the same ingredient! That is a victory in itself.
Now truth be told, this was my first time baking the gingerbread houses myself and making the icing so I called in reinforcements: The Snow Queen (aka my momma). My baking skills did not succeed as some of the pieces came out crooked or unsymetrical but at least I tried! Oh, and I made the wrong icing. But, it all worked out and everyone used their best efforts to build houses worthy of Pinterest. Each house turned out differently and I was ecstatic over the creativity everyone used.
The top ingredients included mini wheats, candy canes, cookies, pretzels, and fruit loops. What is your go-to ingredient for gingerbread house assembly? Do you make yours out of real cookies or out of graham crackers? Speaking of graham crackers…umm I thought there was an “n” somewhere in that word. Oh well, spelling bee winner I am not.
Mandy and Conner 
Oh my! These are beautiful! We started a gingerbread house building competition in our family just last year, but we stick to the prepackaged kits. Maybe we can eventually build up to this. Nice work! 🙂
Oh how amazing do they all look? Fantastic. We usually buy a kit from the supermarket, and re build and decorate it with the girlies. This year we have done one with chocolate, melting it into moulds…. we still need to actually build it now though! #tinseltuesday
Wow wow wow. They all look amazing and would not look out of place in a shop window. What a lovely idea for a party. Thanks for linking up to #TinselTuesdays
Wow these houses are amazing! I feel so Christmassy now! Thanks for linking to #PointShoot x (if you could pop our badge on that would be great!) Thanks
So fun! Pinned and tweeted. We appreciate you being a part of our party, and I hope to see you on tonight at 7 pm. We love partying with you!
Happy Monday! Lou Lou Girls
these are AWESOME! My kids were too busy eating ingredients to do much decorating…But I remember being meticulous with my candy placement as a kid. What a fun party to have! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Courtney! Yeah we definitely ate our share of candies! We actually only got ingredients we would want to consume while building. Ha!