Have you put up the Christmas lights outside? Is there a Christmas tree sitting in front of your window? Every year it seems our neighborhood lights up with some holiday cheer a couple of days earlier than it did the year before. This year, with an early Thanksgiving, I’m amazed to see twinkling colors and blinking trees up and down our street already. I’m thankful so many of our neighbors enjoy decorating for the holidays!
The decked out houses always make me think of gingerbread houses, and what better time to share a printable gingerbread house with all of you than right this very moment? Especially when I’ve had so much inspiration in my neighborhood! I have a special fondness for gingerbread constructions. My husband’s family has a very strong gingerbread house tradition. They’ve allowed me to join in, but there are some years when the seriousness of the task is beyond even creative little ol’ me. A couple of years before I became involved, my husband’s gingerbread house was a scale model replica of the brand new house (the real one) that he’d just moved into. There was also a year when his sister created a mansion that I think was larger than my oven. I’m still not sure how she made the gingerbread. These are the kind of houses that, though made of gingerbread, are held together with super glue. I’m not joking.
Their gingerbread tradition has definitely broadened my ideas of what a gingerbread house can be. It also makes a great holiday party theme. I thought I’d share some possibilities with you today.
- Pick a theme, and invite the neighbors over to create a house – or other gingerbread “sculpture” – to suit the theme.
- Have everyone mix up their own gingerbread dough ahead of time, then all you need to do is take turns cutting and cooking. Plus, you can have a gingerbread smackdown – who’s dough cooks up the best?
- Have a contest for the best house – with candy for prizes, of course!
- Create non-traditional gingerbread structures like a carousel, a birdhouse, train, Santa’s sleigh, a castle, etc.
- Create a miniature of your own house, or the house you grew up in, or some other nostalgic building.
- One year the family theme was snow globes – just think of the crazy gingerbread creations you could make with that one!
- Give the kids graham crackers, frosting, and all of their favorite candies and I can almost guarantee you’ll lose them in the task for an hour or so!
So while you’re dreaming of sugar plums, gumdrops, and gingerbread, here is your printable gingerbread house to give you a little boost. It probably won’t fool the neighbors though, you’ll still need to make a real one!
