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Easiest Gingerbread House Hack Ever
Decorating a gingerbread house is a lot of fun for all ages. Building that house, however, can sometimes be a little tricky. Check out our easy hack for the simplest way to build your house.
Two years ago I got an email from Landon’s preschool inviting me and the other moms to join the class the week before Christmas for a morning of gingerbread house decorating with our kiddos. I remember thinking that this was a pretty lofty goal – assembling the houses and then decorating in less than an hour. One of the teachers tipped me off and told me that the houses would actually be assembled before we got there and all we’d have to do was frost the house and stick some candy on it.
I was pretty darn impressed that the teachers would be undertaking the construction of 15+ gingerbread houses all for the sake of mother/kid bonding time! When we arrived at school that morning, I got a glimpse of the pretty genius hack that they used and instantly realized why they were willing to do the assembly.
Gingerbread House Hack Supplies
Cardboard Juice Container (rinsed and dried)
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Graham Crackers
Frosting
Variety of Candy
Easiest Way to Build a Gingerbread House
Now, before I show you the big hack, it’s important to note that this gingerbread house will NOT be for EATING. LOL Quite frankly, I never eat pieces off a gingerbread house anyway, YUCK, but I feel better reiterating for this post: don’t eat the gingerbread house. This one is for display only!
Plug in your glue gun and while it heats up, cut the bottom half OFF of the drink carton.
One side at a time, cover the carton with graham crackers using a hot glue gun to affix it. You can use regular household scissors to trim excess edges off of the graham crackers. You’ll want the crackers to be fairly flush with the carton’s edges. Note: my glue wasn’t actually as BLOB-TASTIC as pictured below. That was simply the result of trying to be a one-mom-show and photograph the project while gluing with my other hand.
Continue gluing graham crackers to the sides of the carton until you have all four sides fully covered.
For the roof – it you have a carton that has one of those plastic easy-pour spouts, remove the cap and push the spout inside the carton. This will give you a flat surface on that side of the “roof.”
Time to frost your house! At this point, you can totally let the kids take over the decorating process. I used regular old frosting-in-a-can (any brand will do) and a butter knife to cover my house. You can really lay the frosting on thick to cover the carton’s peak.
After the entire house has been covered in frosting, it’s time to add the candy. My kids love this part!
You can only tell that ours is built on a carton if you peak under the eaves. LOL And I definitely could have put the frosting on thicker in those spots if I had really cared about hiding the carton.
This activity would be a lot of fun to have ready for the kids at your next holiday gathering. You can pre-make the houses and set up work stations that each have a house, a container of frosting, and a variety of candies.
As for that preschool gingerbread decorating? We had a blast and I am having a hard time coming to terms with the fact that this year is our final year of preschool after having two kids attend over a span of 5 years. *sniff*
Want to gift a gingerbread kit? It’s so easy and we have the cutest free printable tags to put on the gift! Check out our DIY Gingerbread Decorating Kit post!
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