Gingerbread House Party

by Stella
(Scotland)

When my son was in Pre-school his class had a Gingerbread House Party. All the kids brought various hard candies, licorice laces, M&M's, candy canes, fruit roll ups, and gumdrops to decorate the houses.

Before getting started, all the kids put on plastic aprons provided by the teacher and decorated with a smiling gingerbread boy. The teachers and parent volunteers helped the kids construct small "gingerbread" houses from graham crackers and royal icing.

They used a piece of cardboard covered in tin foil, as a base. Then the kids used the candy they had all brought to decorate their houses. There was a lot of creativity among the house builders.

It was messy, but the kids had so much fun! After the houses were built, the kids had hot chocolate and real gingerbread cookies bought at a local bakery. Each gingerbread man had the child's name on it.

After the cookies were consumed, the kids all finished the party by singing some Christmas carols and listening to Christmas stories. An extra nice touch was that every child had been asked to bring a book to donate to "Toys For Tots" for Christmas.

The teacher gathered them all in a big box with the school name and the name of the class to be taken to the local toy drive. The children were all excited over the idea of giving the books to other kids.

They were all happy to carry their gingerbread creations home to show proudly to their families. It was a great party, and one that I will always remember.