Gingerbread House Day is on December 12th, 2023!

I have to admit, gingerbread cookies aren't my favorite Christmas cookie. But, I LOVE the way they smell when they are baking and I LOVE to decorate gingerbread houses! Don't you? Get together with someone you love this Christmas season and decorate one or two, or more! I guarantee you'll have a great time!

Decorating a gingerbread house is all about the FUN! So, if you're not into all of the baking and cutting, then just go out and buy one that is ready to go! There is no shame! It's all about your comfort level. If you have your favorite gingerbread recipe and love to bake, cut out all the shapes, and whip up the royal icing, then more power to you! I tend to be a little amazed by you! Here are a couple more ideas to make gingerbread house decorating a little easier:

Use Pop-Tarts

You can use plain Pop-Tarts as the walls of your gingerbread house. Glue them together just as you would gingerbread with some royal icing and let it harden before you begin decorating.

You will need to use six total for your house. Use two standing upright (vertical) for your front and back walls and use two on their sides (horizontally) for the left and right walls. Then, use the last two as the slanted roof. If they don't fit exactly how you like, you can always cut the front and back walls down a bit.

Use small milk cartons The hardest part about this may be collecting the milk cartons! Be sure to wash them out and let them dry. Then glue the tops together.

Use graham crackers instead of gingerbread and stick them to the sides of the carton with icing to form your house.

You can put the graham crackers on ahead of time so they're ready to go if your decorators are young!

Note: You can use graham crackers for your house without using a milk carton. Just glue them together as you would gingerbread with some royal icing.

However, unless you have older children, you probably want to assemble them and let them dry ahead of time for your kiddos.

Use melted white chocolate chips as your "glue" instead of royal icing

This is easier and quicker than making the icing and it sets up just as well.

Here are some fun things that you can use to decorate your houses with:

• Gumdrops

• Candy canes/ mini candy canes

• Peppermint patties

• Skittles, Reese's Pieces, or M&M's (mini M&M's work great too)

• Sno-caps

• Sugar wafer cookies

• Mini marshmallows

• Peeps shaped like Christmas trees and gingerbread men

• Vanilla wafers

• Coconut flakes or powdered sugar for snow

• Different types of cupcake sprinkles and candies

• Cereals (Cheerios, Honeycomb, Fruit Loops, Fruity Pebbles, etc.)

Be proud of what you create and make sure to show off your finished products!