My mom was obsessed with Christmas. Absolutely obsessed. The woman had a different Christmas sweater for every day of December. This is not an exaggeration, and may in fact be a gross underestimate of the number of Christmas sweaters she owned. Many of these sweaters lit up, played music, or most often, both. After I reached a certain age, she promised to stop wearing the ones that lit up or made noise when I was around, which came after years of my embarrassed teenage protests.
That said, the one thing, and perhaps the only thing, we never did at Christmas was make gingerbread houses. I assume that is because making a gingerbread house is incredibly messy, time consuming, and you end up eating more candy than you put on the house. Me + sugar is still a bad idea to this day.
It felt like it was finally time for me to rectify this injustice and make my first gingerbread house. The kits can be purchased most anywhere this time of year, but I got mine at Michaels for under 10 bucks. There is also an adorable one for sale at Starbucks which I almost grabbed during one of my daily coffee runs.
The key to making a gingerbread house is patience. Once you use the frosting to construct the four walls, you have to let it set and harden. The same goes for the roof. So, if you want to make your own house, plan to assemble it about 4 hours before you actually want to decorate it. Otherwise, your house is going to completely cave in upon itself.
I cheated a little and did the lines on the roof before I added those panels because I figured drawing with frosting would be hard enough without trying to do it on an angle. Once the house was ready I added candy christmas lights, frosting windows, a fondant door, an icing christmas tree, gumdrop shrubbery, and tiny gingerbread kids. I even constructed my own candy chimney.
I definitely think I consumed as much, if not more, icing and candy as what actually went on the house. In fact, as I write this, I am finishing up the left over gumdrops. And to answer what is turning into a fairly common question, no you cannot eat my gingerbread house. Build your own.
52 Things 52 Weeks 
The key to making a gingerbread house is definitely patience, I’ve learned this the hard way. I also have seen that starbucks one during my coffee runs. I need to go pick mine up soon at Michaels though 🙂 Thanks for sharing such a great post !
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If you give it time to dry, they wind up pretty sturdy. Michaels had a few options when I was there as well as additional fun candy decorations. They even had a sale going.
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Also, it is a lot more fun if the process and not perfection is the goal!
Meaning… let the kids do most of the work!
That said once our house was in a holiday house walk and – even though we had done a tremendous amount throughout the home – the less than perfect gingerbread house on the kitchen table stole the show. Everyone loves them!
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And they make the kitchen smell great!
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I love your mother 🙂 !
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