as i prepared for our annual gingerbread house decorating festival, i made the executive decision to forego the store bought house kits and went with graham cracker homes instead. i acquired an extremely ridiculous amount of decor items over the weeks leading up to the decorating party, so i figured we might as well share with friends. our covid pod pals, the lewises were glad to come over, but they had their own fancy (school fundraiser) real gingerbreadhouses. hahaha.
i made the houses in advance, and included a sugar cone “tree” for additional sugar adornments. and laid out the many MANY colorful options. and then let the games begin.
some candid shots of the artisans at work. some just ate candy and some worked diligently. some made colorful happy homes and some made bloody murder scenes. you never know what you’ll get as these hammerheads grow older.
my family’s finished parade of (gingerbread) homes. i even made one this year. moms can have fun too. especially if we do all the prep work and clean up.
isaac. too impatient to wait his turn for the green royal icing so he used gel. 
hazel. very proud of her tree. 
anna’s. gingerbread homocide scene. 
mine. rainbowy. 
all of the kiddos homes.
everyone had a great time i think and the gingerbread houses managed to survive uneaten until a few days before christmas when i finally gave in and let them try to eat them knowing that the royal icing was like a rock and they wouldn’t actually want them but sometimes you have to learn things the hard way. rock hard.
Fun project. Glad you got to make one, too.