Back in the BC days (before children), my sister and I would get together on a Saturday and make gingerbread houses.

Our houses were elaborate.  Gobby.  They had tons of icing and tons of candy.  In fact, there wasn’t one itsy bitsy spot of brown gingerbread showing anywhere.  It was all frosting and candy.

And it took ALL day  — baking the gingerbread, cutting out the house, putting it together, and decorating it.

When it was finally finished, I was exceptionally weary — and satiated with sugar.

When I had children, I modified what I did.  Less icing.  Less candy.  Less time.  And let the kids do the decorating.

Now, it’s time to make gingerbread houses with grandchildren.  That’s on the agenda for Christmas Eve when they come over.  I’ll use graham crackers instead making the gingerbread.  And have them do very simple decorations.  I anticipate making a whole flock of them because they will be so easy and quick.

But, what if you don’t even want to do the graham cracker thing?

I have a solution for you!  All you need is a brown paper grocery bag, bits of wrapping paper or old Christmas cards, a bead, and some yarn.

If you go to Susan Gaylord’s site, you can watch her video on how she makes the grocery bag gingerbread house.  And the delightful thing is that when you open up the house, you have gingerbread men that come out.  (It would be fun for grandchildren to make a gingerbread man to represent each member in their family.)

This grocery bag gingerbread house is cheap-o to make, quick and easy, and is a lot healthier (unless you gnaw on the brown bag…).

So head over to this clever lady’s site, watch her eleven minute video, and then make an easy gingerbread house with your grandchildren.

Be sure to have Christmas music playing in the background so you can sing along. And since you won’t have candy to snitch as you’re making your house, be sure to have a small, healthy treat.  Family Fun has some cute snacks:

• Crunchy the Snowman
• Toasty the Snowman
• Frosty the Bagel

Happy gingerbread house making with your grandchildren!

Last week I went to the Festival of Trees in Salt Lake City.  This annual fund raiser for the Primary Children’s Hospital offers fully decorated Christmas trees for sale and the proceeds go to the hospital.  Thousands of people donate thousands of hours to make it a huge success.  There are also wreaths for sale, a boutique of handmade items, a bakery of scrumptious homemade baked goods and candies, and fabulous, fabulous, fabulous gingerbread houses.  My glycemic index shot off the charts just looking at these creations.

I loved the gingerbread-man fence for this house.  Can you see Woody (from Toy Story) on the step?  Fun! (Click on the pictures to see an enlarged version.)

Can you see Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head in this picture?  I’m wondering if Toy Story 3 spawned the creative juices of the designers of these houses.

And the granddaddy of them all . . . (Sorry the picture is blurry.  I didn’t realize it at the time or I would have re-taken the picture.)

My friend went to a display in Midway, Utah. More ‘holy cow’ houses . . . I love the fence and swing set here.

This is not your tiny cottage out of gingerbread — as you can tell by the relationship of the house to the people peering in.

How appropriate – a candy land theme.

What a lovely castle . . .

I had to re-size these pictures so that this page wouldn’t overload your browser.  Look close at this gingerbread house below.  See the ‘mice’ that are pulling the sleigh? The sign at the bottom left says: Mouseville Power and Electric Co. Danger!  There is a sign by the bakery that says: Bread 50 cents. Tea 25 cents. Cake $1.00.  Cheese Free.  NO CATS! (What a great sense of humor!)

If I let myself, I could get really depressed looking at these gingerbread houses.  My creations are slovenly decorated huts compared to these sugar-laden chef -d’oeuvre.  Sigh . . .

I know that many of you creative, energetic, cool grandmothers make gingerbread houses with your grandchildren.  Some are simple houses out of graham crackers and others are mansions from homemade gingerbread.  I’m sure that this activity with grandchildren creates many fond memories.

Yesterday, one of the ladies at work brought in a gingerbread house that she had made.  She had done some innovative things that I hadn’t seen before.  Granted, I have been out of the loop of making gingerbread houses once I became an empty-nester.  Now that my grandchildren are getting old enough to participate in the making of one, I’m starting to pay attention once again.

I snapped pictures of the house so that you could see what my co-worker has done.  Here are a few things that were new to me:

• Tootsie rolls, pretzels and gumdrops for a fence
• frosted Shredded Wheat Bites for shingles on the roof
• Hershey Kisses as bells on the candy canes on the house corners
• a Hershey Kiss and a square piece of gingerbread to make the snowman’s hat
• licorice sticks to line the eaves of the roof
• the straight part of a candy cane and a gumdrop as a lamp post
• the curved parts of candy canes to line the path
• sticks of gum for shutters on the window
• multi-colored Mike and Ike candy for a cobblestone path
• coconut scattered around to make the ‘snow’ seem fluffier

Be sure to click on the picture to see a larger size so that you can see the details better.

What are some fun things that you have done when you make a gingerbread house?

Be sure to leave a comment on my Scholastic book giveaway. It ends at midnight on December 3. Click here to go to that post.

There isn’t any better time of year than Christmas to establish fun traditions with your grandchildren.  And these fun traditions will strengthen and build good relationships – as long as Grandma doesn’t get stressed out thinking that everything has to be perfect!

Making gingerbread houses has been a Christmas tradition with my children that I would like to carry on with my grandchildren.  I’m including a pattern here for a simple gingerbread house, directions on making the gingerbread, the frosting, and constructing the house.

Here are two pictures of my son, Tyler, my daughter, Christi, and my niece, Emily, with their completed gingerbread houses.  These pictures were taken back in 1999 when the Y2K scare was high.  Notice on the back side of one of the houses (the picture of the back side of the houses and the back side of the kids!) that they drew ‘Y2K’ in frosting!

If you don’t have the time (or the desire) to make the gingerbread for your house, graham crackers will work just fine!  Use the frosting recipe (included in the directions) that I share with you here because it will harden and hold your house together – whether it’s graham cracker or gingerbread!

Here are the patterns:
Gingerbread House Recipe and Directions.
Gingerbread House front/back pattern,
Gingerbread House roof pattern,
Gingerbread House sides pattern

These patterns are PDF files that you can download, print, and then use to help you cut out your homemade gingerbread.

Have fun making a gingerbread house with the grandkids!
Digi-Gram

Grandma Ideas