Welcome, Gabi. 40 is a big piece of change. I see it as a pretty decoration, but then eat it while you have a crowd to help you. It would be a shame to have it go to waste.
I don't really understand your question..You bought one but you want to make one too??

gabro, Welcome to the forum. It's been years since I did a gingerbread house so I'm sure others on the list can help you better than I could. If you want to have the house as a decoration for your party on the 22nd the two of you could still have a special evening decorating it a little earlier. And please do share pics with us when you have it decorated.

Hi Kathleen,
Sorry if I wasn't clear. I did buy one, but it's a pre-baked kit. So I still need to put the house together and decorate it.
I agree that it would be a waste for it to only be decorated for a day, and for nobody to eat it. Having it for the party makes more sense. Thanks.

Hi Sandi,
That's a good idea...we'll have a special evening making the house BEFORE the party. I would love to have it for the party so that people can enjoy it as a decoration and also as a yummy treat. I guess I'll just pick something else for the 2 of us to do on Christmas Eve. Maybe we'll just eat dinner, watch a Christmas movie, and bake cookies :)
And of course I will post pictures when it's finished - I also have a gingerbread tree that we are going to make (which I found for 10 dollars), so I'll hopefully have both done for the party.

Still looking forward to hearing when others make their gingerbread houses and what you do with them to make them "last longer" for the holiday. Thanks!

Gabi

Gabi, Well with all the kits to make that I've tried, it was a monumental pain and now I won't do that again. Not trying to discourage you. What if you make it at your party with your guests? I will say fast drying royal icing and some props, hair dryers etc. will help you. If you do make it before your party, give yourself several days. Oh, how about you just pre assemble it and then let your party guests help you decorate it? That would be fun. Then if it doesn't go together as planned,,just eliminate that activity? HGTV had a showing last yr or yr before that followed a competition for GB houses, maybe something there could give you some tips. Search around, I'm sure you'll find some helpful hints. Or, Costco has some right now (the kits) that are about $10 so you could do a trial run on that and if you end up hating the chore you could donate your kit to an organization. Just thinking out loud here. I really hope it goes well for you. Have a great party either way.

Piper,
Great ideas...thanks. The only problem is that my friends that are coming to the party are WAY too lazy, and would much rather eat the house than decorate it! I think I'll take your advice and give myself several days.
Thanks for all your ideas..
Gabi

I just had a "work" Christmas party for 40 -50. Some of the folks were bringing their kids so I made up some mini gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for the children to decorate. It was a big hit with the children and their parents. Those families stayed longer than the other guests ! I just followed the directions on the back of the "gingerbread" graham cracker box. The frosting was just powdered sugar and water - it made great mortar when it was dry. They were a little tricky to build, however. We called them our Gingerbread "shantys" because some were a little crooked. But the kids didn't care. I got several different candies, marshmallows, pretzels, shredded wheat, and some Christmas decorations from the cake mix and frosting aisle. It was a great activity for all ages. The older kids (10-12) really got creative and then helped the younger kids. The parents then got to enjoy their party.
The houses are a lot easier to build if you use the small milk cartons (like the kids have at school) as a support. But I didn't have those - hence the gingerbread shantys! Lots of fun to see the children having such a good time. Maybe I need some grandchildren?

I think one of the best times I ever had with my son at Christmas was building a gingerbread house. We didn't buy a kit, but we did have the milk cartons. I think he ate (and wore) a lot more than he put on the houses.

Delphinium, Your party sounds like it was a huge success that the children really enjoyed. Good thinking.

OK. What do you do with the milk cartons exactly? I really think this would be fun for the Grandkids, but I need LOTS of help if y'all can give me all of the hints that you have learned. Details, I need details!!!! LOL

Betty

Betty,

The milk cartons are used as a base to "glue" the graham crackers onto. It's much easier to build a house with them. Google gingerbread house and you should find lots of wonderful ideas. The main thing I remember is to make the "glue" (powdered sugar & water) on the dry side. It helps to keep the candies from sliding down the vertical walls and also if it's too wet the colors of the candies can bleed down the walls. Good luck and I hope you and your grandchildren get to build them and have lots of fun.

Betty,
Sandi's instructions are right on. Make the frosting on the dry side. If the children are preschool age I would advise having the houses already built. The children get into the decorating more than the house construction. The frosting dries very strong. However, when it is wet things have a tendency to slide. The children at my party did a great job with very little advice! Have fun with your grandchildren!

Gabi

We made a gingerbread house a few years ago with my kids. We made it before Christmas (a week or so). It was so much work that we didn't plan to eat it. The kids got to eat the leftover decorations and we always have cookies around, so they were happy. We put it on a large piece of cardboard covered with freezer wrap (waxy side up) and fashioned an electric clip-in candle into a hole in the board. When the light was on it was just enough heat to send the smell of the gingerbread throughout the kitchen and make the house smell yummy. We did cut windows in the house though so the heat could escape. And the heat did not seem to affect the frosting or decorations. It dried very hard. We left it up for the month of January. Then I found a BIG cardboard box and after Christmas we put the whole thing in the box and stored it in the basement until the next year. It was fine - looked perfect. We threw it away after the 2nd year with intentions to make another one. That hasn't happened yet, but with a new grandbaby, perhaps I see another GB house in the future. I think the most fun for the kids was shopping for the candies and getting to eat the leftovers! Just remember if you do this on Christmas Eve you'll be up half the night cleaning up the mess. I vote for a nice dinner and a movie, a relaxing calm before the storm (Christmas Day!). Attempting a photo:

Arlene

Arlene, That is a really nice gingerbread house and I love the pretzel fence. It all looks like a country church. Love the chimney smoke too.

Gabi, So what did you end up doing????

What a gorgeous gingerbread house, Arlene!

Well, I took all of your advice and decided to do it before Christmas eve, and this way we can enjoy it as a party decoration. We made it over a period of 3 days (spent just a little time each day so we wouldn't get worn out), and it looks great. I took a bunch of pictures and I will post them when I get home from work. I'm glad we didn't save it for Christmas eve - would have been WAY too frustrating, and we also needed to let the house dry for 2-3 hours before decorating, so it would've taken ALL night to finish.

Stay tuned for the pics, and thanks again for all your help :)

Gabi

Arlene I loved your house. I made those graham cracker houses for the gals at work many years ago it was fun.

I would suggest that you watch the sales after Christmas You can probably get the G House kits for about $2 or even less on sale. Save it for Easter or Valentines day and just use your own color scheme. These houses will last a really long tim I've heard of some lasting a couple of years for display purposes so it might be fun to get one and just have on hand. You can always buy or make Gingerbread to eat!! or did I say all this already??

I didn't get a chance to post pics last night because my computer is going nuts. But here they are:

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If I decide to save it (and if people don't eat it at the party!), is there something I should spray on it? Someone at work had mentioned that you shouldn't just store food for a year, which makes sense...but I think if I just put it in a box it should be fine. What do you all think?

And thanks for looking - I hope you like how it came out. I still have my gingerbread christmas tree to put together and decorate, but I think I'll save that for next year!

Gabi

It looks great Gabi! Personally I wouldn't eat anything that's been sitting out collecting dust for even a week....that is why I am not fond of eating gingerbread houses, not to mention the fact that the icing they have you use dries VERY hard. As far as storing it, I did not spray anything on mine. It's not like you're going to eat it next year. Sugar holds up amazingly well. When we did our gb house we also made some little snowmen out of the frosting. They were so cute! I gave one to my mom who put it in one of her miniature shadow boxes and it was fine for several years. By then it was all dusty and yucky and you couldn't clean it, so she threw it away. Sugar hardens like rock. I'd be afraid any of those clear spray sealers would start dissolving the candy.
Arlene

Gabi, Yall did a great job on your gingerbread house. I love the little people peeping out of the window. As for storing it, I can't help you with that, but since Arlene saved hers with success I would try it her way.

Thanks! I will definitely save it then.
Happy holidays everyone!
Gabi

Hello Gabi -
I have wanted to reply, but hadn't had a moment to get the picture uploaded! My son and I attend a Community Ed "class" which sponsors gingergbread house making! This is his third year. His houses have lasted many months...of course we don't eat them, but he loves to look at them. They have the houses already put together for us, individual bowls of icing, and then a buffet line of candies and each child goes through the line and chooses what they want to use to decorate their house and "property"! They can go back for seconds too! Each child also has a tube of NECCO wafers. I think the key is to have everything all lined out ahead of time.

We did buy a kit of cookie cutters for each piece of a house that also work well and have done our own, but going to the class is a lot easier and not as expensive (i.e. left over candy that we all don't need to eat!).

My son's house this year...not quite as fancy as yours, but fun still the same!
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[Merry Christmas!
Wendy

great houses I love them!!

Merry Christmas to gingerbread lovers.