Every year, usually the second Sunday in December, we head to our friend T's house and get our gingerbread house building on. Yes, that probably sounded a bit on the cheesy side, but come on, we were building houses out of sugary cookie bits and candy, I think I can get away with being a bit on the fluffy and light side.
Anyway, my friend, amazing woman that she is, bakes all the gingerbread house pieces and whips up all the royal icing (AKA cement) for us all to glue together for decorating fun. I usually end up being covered in the icing, but this year they handed me an apron and I got to look cool while I decorated!
All of us who show up bring candy for house customization and personalization. I always get a kick out of how people's personalities shine through in their gingerbread house decorating.
For instance, some of the kids are fully into their teen years. The teen girls spent meticulous minutes carefully designing decorative schemes that wouldn't be out of place in Rockefeller Square, whereas most of the boys had more fun eating the candy and seeing how much royal icing they could plop on their house before randomly splattering handfuls of candy until the exterior of their house resembles a Pollock painting. It was pretty neat.
The adults, me included, always come up with intricate patterns of decor. This year I took an entire wall and shingled it with red and green gummy bears. Gum drops are always a popular choice for roofing as are Christmas Hershey kisses.
A nice edition to the chaos this year were a couple of toddlers. Both of my friend's adult children have moved home, and they both have respectable broods of toddlers and infants. Fingers were jabbed into prospective gingerbread house masterpieces and many, many Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and chocolate Santa's were stolen and ingested. One two year old got so wound on an excess of candy that he was fetching a smashed chocolate Santa like he was a well-behaved, albeit hyper, beagle. He wasn't even dissuaded when I told him his chocolate looked like a cat turd. I was amused though.
One older child wished to help me decorate and really wanted to put a red Swedish fish on my house's front door. I was feeling agreeable and acquiesced to her very polite request. After squeezing some icing onto the fish and letting her press it on the door, both I and another woman next to me busted up into giggles, the fish looked like an appendage of the phallic sort. Juvenile of me I know, but in my defense, I was hanging out with kids.
And did the kids ever have fun. The teens flirted and trash talked each other, the toddlers wreaked sugar high destruction, the adults told yarns and tried to reign in the toddlers, it was rather glorious.
The end result was also pretty nice too.
Over the next couple of weeks, much of the candy will disappear off of my house, the baby gorilla that is in residence here has a sweet tooth, but instead of being sad, the waning of the candy on my house is a sign of the fun to come.
For you see, we have another tradition regarding gingerbread houses in our household. We build them the second week of December and then on New Year's Day we blow them up with shotguns. Pulverized sugar really does look pretty exploding into the air and coloring the snow on one's gun range after all.
Oh wow, I really enjoyed this post! So many colourful pictures of the decorated gingerbread houses.
Although I've been wanting to make our gingerbread house for 2 weeks now, I still have to do so. Hopefully, this weekend before it's too late haha
Hi and thanks😊 I hope you are getting to build a gingerbread house this weekend!
What fun! Years ago, the kids and I used to construct a large cooky house each year, using instructions in my old Betty Crocker cookbook. We did variations on the original theme, made a lovely mess, and had a good time. More recently, the girls and I used to buy the gingerbread house kits at the store and assemble those together. Even that was perhaps ten years ago, however. We never knew what to do with them later, though, so I love your solution to that dilemma!
It sounds like you all had some quality gingerbread house fun over the years, I love it!
And you know how it is around here, any chance to blow something up or get in some target practice is always taken lol!
I swear everyone I know had that big red Betty Crocker cookbook, I remember mom making the brownies out of there quite frequently:)
That looks SO fun !
I love them all.
It really was a blast! :)
Those are so much fun! My kids have pretty much graduated out of them, as they are all in their 20s, but I do have fond memories. You guys go elaborate! We never put anything fancier than gummy bears on ours! York patties and Reeses? Wow!!
They really turned out beautifully.
Ah, I hear ya, my son graduated out this year, but my daughter’s hanging in there. The memories are great and maybe one year soon you’ll head to gingerbread construction land again. And who knows, there might even be a Reese’s roof! Lol
Thanks:)
Dear Kat, Ha! You are so juvenile! Wait a minute... If I am not mistaken, it does look a little - Yup. Definitely.
I love the gingerbread houses! We don't do ours until this weekend, but, I like how you dispose of them, much better than me! We eat them. Until we can't anymore. I will bring up your strategy and see how that rolls.
As if.
You are so much fun! I'm so lazy, I have a cookie mold that has all the pieces in it and you just bake it, and voila! You have all your pieces. Thanks for the fun. You know just what I love. 💖
Well my dear Ds, I have been mistaken for a kid a time or two, do you think that means I can get away with the occasional juvenile ornery moment? Lol lol!
Ooh, I hope we get to see pictures of your houses! Most of the candy does get eaten off them before demolition day.
I so love Christmas time and all the awesomeness that rolls in with it. It’s beyond a compliment that you think I’m fun, considering you’re one of the funnest people ever!
So, when does the tannerite shooting gallery explosion part happen? New Year's Day?
Usually New Year’s Day or the day after, I shall keep you informed...
LOL ... what kind of gingerbread house are you running? I am reminded of the ruins of Pompei and one house of ill-repute. It is a gingerbread town and your house is in the red light district. maybe?!
I am bowled over by the amount of candy. Reese peanut butter cups are my favorite.
Okay, you killed me, a gingerbread house red light district for the win, lol lol!
Reese’s are pretty much my favorite candy of all time, I’m going to go eat one off of the house in your honor:)
Haha ... with a nip of whiskey.