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DIGITAL SCRAPBOOKINGGraham Cracker Christmas Houses
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Hello everyone! Rosy here with a holiday food post for you!
I’ve always thought that making gingerbread houses at Christmas time was such a fun tradition, but it always looked like a big, and a bit complicated, process to me. Until I came across the idea to make little houses out of graham crackers! That seemed easy enough, even to me; so the other day we (Isaac, Audrey, and I) created some cute little Christmas houses.
First I gathered together my supplies:
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graham crackers (1 box made three houses)
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frosting (I used regular buttercream icing)
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candy to decorate
Knowing that my 1 and 2 year old were not going to be able to help in the construction of the house itself, I put the houses together myself before they were up, to minimize the mess that would result :)
I cut all of the pieces out first, using a common butter knife. I found that it worked the best to score the cracker with the knife and then snap it apart.
Tip: If the edge isn’t clean enough, it works great to rub it against another cracker.
My house parts looked like this:
Now I was ready to put the pieces together using the frosting as glue. I had already made my frosting the day before, adding some extra powdered sugar to keep it stiff.
Some people use melted chocolate to put together their gingerbread houses and give it a more solid structure, but I opted for the easier cleanup of icing.
After the houses were put together, I stuck them in the refrigerator to let the frosting harden a bit before we decorated them. And I wanted to feed the children breakfast before they got their hands in the candy :)
Now we get to the fun part of actually decorating our houses!
I piped on the icing and then let the children stick on candy. Isaac had a great time putting candies on his house. Audrey didn’t think candy should go on houses, but all in your mouth!
Tip: We used pretzels as windows and added cracker pieces for shutters.
You could get really creative with the candies and decorations that you use! I kept it pretty simple with the age of my children, and in Audrey’s case, ended up doing most of the decorating on her house myself.
These are so cute and the perfect size for children!
I think it would be neat to do a miniature version like this and use them as placecards at your holiday table!
All in all, it was a fun project and we’ll probably do it again. Maybe by next year Audrey will be old enough to decorate her own house, too. And maybe someday I’ll even graduate to making “real” gingerbread houses.
Here is the page that I scrapped about our house decorating experience.
I’d like to hear from you! If you decorate gingerbread houses, do you eat them soon after, or are they a fun holiday decoration to you? (Just add a comment on this post.)
I couldn’t decide, and then I thought they’d probably be getting stale anyway, so we kept them as decoration! So maybe this isn’t a “food” post at all! hmmm….. Oh, yeah, Audrey definitely thinks that it is!
Thanks for stopping by! Don’t miss Beckie‘s AWESOME Focus on Photos post just below this one…it was also published today!
May 14, 2013 @ 11:57:57
Thanks for the interesting read :)
Dec 23, 2011 @ 20:55:04
Just wanted to pop in and say THANK YOU for this wonderful idea. I am not a fan of gingerbread and have never had great luck making gingerbread houses…but I love graham crackers and so do the kids I take care of who are 4 and 2! We did this the other day and had a blast! The older one was super-serious about her work of art and the younger one was happy eating all the goodies (fruit loops, pretzels and m&m’s!)
Dec 15, 2011 @ 21:09:53
You have inspired me to give this project a try! My kids (11,9,& 7) will be out of school next week and I think that this will be a great way to keep them entertained!!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 19:53:21
We have been doing the graham cracker houses for well over 30 years now. It is a tradition that each of our kids has carried over into his/her own home.
Are the houses decoration or snack? It depends on which child you’re talking about. A few of our grandkids always have very symmetrical houses with lots of candy patterns. One packs as much candy onto his structure without any plan other than to have plenty for later. Another always uses the candy to create faces, so this year he had a monster house. The youngest usually has most of the candy picked off and eaten before pictures are taken. But my favorite of all time was the house constructed by a practical grandchild. Wondering why she had placed all the chocolate Santas and snowmen face first into the frosting, she explained the candy would be easier to get out of the wrappers that way.
Dec 14, 2011 @ 22:11:04
I love it that you let each child decide what happens to their house! and the face first snowmen is just too good! lol!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 19:45:11
Rosy I LOVE this! my kids are 7 & 4 and they would have an absolute blast doing this! having hot cocoa, with the fire on…<3 this would be a really sweet activity!!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 22:11:48
Love that cozy picture!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 17:40:49
we used to make these when I was younger! My mum used to bake the whole thing from scratch, true devotion if you ask me! Now that she is doing it with the grandkids (or for them!) she uses Garibaldi biscuits – we don’t have Graham crackers over here, and I don’t know if you have Garibaldi biscuits over there (basic biscuit with raisins in, but it comes in flat rectangles, like your graham crackers!) – but they work pretty well too! Does anybody know how the gingerbread house tradition started? I”m not sure why it is Christmassy, but it does feel very festive!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 19:16:47
That’s an interesting question! I just did a quick online search and read that making gingerbread houses started in Germany after the story of Hansel and Gretel was written. I don’t know how it got to be a Christmas tradition, though!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 14:57:23
What a wonderful post Rosy – loved reading this and your photographs are beautiful. I have yet to do a gingerbread house with my two boys but would really love to. You’ve really inspired me…
Dec 14, 2011 @ 15:32:45
Thanks! I still have so much to learn in taking good food (or any) photos! I love my new 50mm f1.4 lens, but I overdid the large aperture on a few of these and got too much blur!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 11:05:41
My husband’s mom likes to do gingerbread houses with the kids. She is really into complex food projects, so her houses are huge and very intricate! She has the house put together before the kids get there too, then lets them put the candy on. I like your version with the graham crackers though… might make me willing to try some on our own this year! Looks just right for younger kids!!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 15:29:21
I think your kids would be just the right age to enjoy this project!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 08:27:05
Very cute, might have to try that!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 08:06:02
This is a GREAT idea! I still haven’t ever done gingerbread houses with my kids…I came close once and bought one (well was given one) but I didn’t think the mess would be worth it! hah. a shame I know! lol I will DEFINETLY have to try this with the girls…fun but not too messy!! Tell your kiddos they look SO cute, and I love yout page to go along with it! GREAT post!
Dec 14, 2011 @ 15:37:07
Thanks, Casharina, I hope you try it and like it! I think the more you organize a project like this, the less messy and overwhelming it gets.