Building a Gingerbread House—A Fun Activity with the Kids for the Holiday Season

I don’t recall ever building a Gingerbread House myself when I was a kid, period.  If my memory serves me right, seeing one exhibited in a restaurant or hotel during the holiday season was the closest encounter I had with a Gingerbread House.  That is, until last weekend.  Yeah, I built a Gingerbread House with my kids, with the help of this kit below.  No, this is NOT a sponsored post.  But I had so much fun building the Gingerbread House with my kids that the entire process made me want to share this wonderful product and experience with you.  I got this kit from Bed Bath and Beyond for $9.99.  What a wonderful deal to build memories together with the kids, right?
 

This kit included everything you see from the picture below.   The Gingerbread cookies, the candies, the icing (as decoration and “glue”) and the plastic tray that you build the house on.  Those who know me well probably know I’m not a crafty person.  But with the help of this kit, it’s almost foolproof.  The only thing I didn’t like was the icing/icing bag.  After I cut 1/4-inch of the corning of the bag (suggested by the instruction on the box) to glue the edges of the house, the cut was way too big for a neat/clean decoration.  Other than that, this was a wonderful kit to have fun with the kiddos.  It kept us busy for the whole morning.



The picture below shows you the back of the box.  It tells you what are included in the kit, simple step by step instructions on how to build the structure, and decorating ideas.



Pay attention to the picture below, as I was laying out my ingredients on a sheet tray as suggested by the instruction, my kids were “fighting” for the box at the background!  LOL…They both wanted to read the instructions for their Mama as they know she doesn’t read instructions that well. 



Once all the sides of the wall were on, up next was the roof.



When all the structural pieces were glued on, we needed to wait 15 minutes for the icing/glue to dry before we can start decorating.  While we were waiting, my big boy and baby girl got too bored…they said the house smells really delicious and wanted to give it a taste test, literally!    Good I didn’t let that happen.  But it was close!  hahaha...what can I say, like Mother like Son/Daughter, they sure are little foodies and want to taste test everything.



Finally, the wait was over and let’s get the fun begin, shall we?!  My baby girl always say “lady first, lady first…” (referring to herself) whenever she wanted to cut in line, in front of her brother.  Luckily, my big boy is such a gentleman and almost always let his sister go first. 



Now, it’s the gentleman’s turn. 



Okay, it’s more fun to do it together.  So, they both started going at it.



I think we did a pretty good job as first timers, right?  What do you think?





By the way, the kit came with a gingerbread tree, gingerbread man and a gingerbread snowman.  But they were quite big, in ratio, when compared to the house; the slots to place them in were too closed to the house and would block the decorations.  So I used some candy penguins I had (originally purchased for another holiday project I had in mind).  They fitted right in (see the picture below).   




So, this Gingerbread house will be "on display" until Christmas.  I might take pictures during the demolition process, if I remember (and not too busy eating candies and cookies).   I had so much fun with the kids building this adorable Gingerbread House together. 

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all are having fun with your kids (or Grandkids) doing craft projects or preparing favorite recipes together.