Gingerbread House Party

If you are thinking of having a Gingerbread Party this holiday let me share with you some fun ideas you can do to make this happen. Having a party where you have the guests build and decorate their own Gingerbread Houses can be a lot of fun to do. The kids love to do this and it is not as hard as you think providing you are prepared ahead of time. When it comes to decorating Gingerbread Houses I find all the left over Halloween Candy very useful for this. So do not throw out all that candy your kids do not eat, because it can be used to decorate the houses.  One thing to remember is that there is no right or wrong way to decorate a Gingerbread House and letting the kids have lots of candies to choose from helps them create their own masterpiece.

What you want to have is  a Gingerbread House for each guest coming to the party. You can choose to have is ready to be assembled or you can assemble it ahead of time so it is ready to decorate.  I like to have the kids to it.  Now you can choose to buy Gingerbread House Kits which are pre-baked and all the pieces are ready to be assembled or you can make your own.  Luckily they now have all the Gingerbread House Molds that make it a lot easier to do that it did years ago when we had to create our own templates. Usually the molds will come with the recipe to make the Gingerbread. Personally I buy the pre-made kits when we do it – I am just not a baker or shall I say I like the convenience.

The next ting you want to have is what I call good glue – that is the frosting to hold the house together and all the candies on.  Without good glue everything will be a disaster!! The recipe below is simple and it works. Make sure to make enough to go around depending on how many guests you will have at the party.

Gingerbread House Frosting/Good Glue Recipe:

• 3 Egg Whites and 1tsp Cream of Tarter – Mix in bowl until it forms stiff peaks
• 1 Lb Powdered Sugar – Mix in slowly
• 1 tsp Vanilla
  

To make it easy I would have some of the frosting in cups so each guest can have their own to work with  – you can also have craft sticks or plastic spoons for them to use to add their frosting on to their houses. Another thing you can do is make your own pastry bags using Ziplocs or Baggies. Just stick some of the frosting in the bags and snip the corner of the bags. Using the bags will enable them to create drips or icicles on the houses if they choose to. You can also choose to purchase Disposable Pastry Bags – just make sure you have the tips too.

Now for the candy – you can do this a couple ways. You can provide all the candy yourself or you can ask each guest to bring a small bag of candy to the party. This way you will get a really nice variety and it will also save you some money.  Again I always use some of my left over Halloween Candy since there is always so much. Some fun candy that is a must have for decorating your Gingerbread Houses is Neco Wafers, Gum Drops, M&M’s, Candy Corn, Peppermint Candies, Candy Canes, Smarties, Skittles and any holiday related candies you can find.  One of my favorite places to find really unique candy is at CandyWarehouse.com they have a lot of fun candy that can really make for some special houses.

Let the kids have fun and be sure to have helpers on hand – sometimes the kids can be a bit impatient and have a hard time getting their houses glued together and allowing them to dry before getting to the fun decorations.

Some of my Gingerbread House Decorating Party Tips:

• Make sure to cover the area you will be making your houses to help save on clean up later
• Tell the kids to wear a shirt that can get messy
• Have a candy eating rule – like they can have 3 pieces each or you will have really sugared up kids
• Be sure to have some cardboard or plates placed under their houses that they can carry them home on. You can also cover cardboard with foil or fun wrapping paper ahead of time.
• Have Paper Towels or Wet Wipes available for sticky hands
• Make sure to have your camera ready – Take pictures during the creating and of all their masterpieces.

Remember to just let the kids have fun and create their own vision of what they think a Gingerbread House should look like – no matter what it will be SWEET!!!

Now let me share some fun Gingerbread Party Supplies that I found with you that can really add to the festivities.  You can start with your Gingerbread Party Invitations and EBay has a lot of great design available to choose from that you can personalize with all your own party information. A lot of the sellers now give you the option of printing them out yourself once the design is done. So for all you last minute party planners it is perfect.

You can add some Gingerbread House Balloons to the party area along with some solid colored ones in Brown, Red and Green to tie it all together. You can also find Vinyl Gingerbread House Banners you can also personalize and they are available in multiple sizes and can be used year after year. So if this is something you do each year the banner is perfect and they are not expensive either.

I also absolutely love the Standup Decorations which are so much fun for photo opportunities. I did a post you can visit on them here: Gingerbread Cardboard Standups. It is definitely a must see if you all things Gingerbread like me. And again they are decorations you can have available year after year.

Your party favors are obviously the great Gingerbread Houses the kids decorated, but if you want to send the kids home with some other Gingerbread Favors here are some ideas for you.

You can send the kids home with a Chocolate Covered Rice Krispy Treat Gingerbread Man. These are available on my website and are a perfect treat to give out to the kids. Each treat is approx 4-5 ounce and they are HUGE. Each treat is individually wrapped and come on a stick. They are made fresh to order and yummy. You can also mix and match them with all the other great Holiday designs that are available.

Another favor is the Gingerbread House Sticker Activitythat the kids can do at home – it comes with 31 stickers and it is under $2.00. I also found cute Gingerbread Man Favor Bags you can add some goodies too. EBay also has a lot of fun Gingerbread Party Favorsyou can look through to find some toys, stickers and more.

So I hope I helped inspire you to have a Gingerbread House Party this year and maybe a new tradition you will do every year with the kids. OH but wait – it is really fun for all ages ya know!!! I know I love to decorate a Gingerbread House. Below are some pictures of my family decorating Gingerbread Houses at our family holiday party – Enjoy!!

You may also like to see my posts on Gingerbread Man Pinatas and How to make Gingerbread Man Cupcakes

I also have a Squidoo page I wrote all about The Gingerbread Man