Decorating Gingerbread Houses

Decorating Gingerbread Houses is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. When we were kids my parents always made elaborate gingerbread houses. I’m talking whole villages, mansions with working lights and candy furniture elaborate. We always got to help decorate and put the candy on, but of course the best part was sneaking all that candy while helping! It was one of those traditions I knew we would definitely carry on with our little family, although mine usually aren’t anywhere as cool as the ones my parents used to make.

Each holiday season I usually host a big Gingerbread Decorating party and we invite our friends over to join in the fun. However, with our move this year and all of the changes I simply wasn’t able to make it happen. But I couldn’t let the holiday season pass without decorating gingerbread houses, it is after all a tradition!

This year I bought pre-made gingerbread houses from Target, can you believe they were only $7?! They only had 3 left so we paired up the boys and girls and everyone took turns adding their candy confections. Speaking of candy, having lots of it is a must when your making gingerbread houses. I like to have tons of variety and one of my favorite places to order custom candy is from SweetWorks. You can order bags of candy by color or brand and there are hundreds of options! Some of our favorites were the Ovation Orange and Mint sticks. They made great columns for our houses, and they were one of my favorite treats to sneak. The big green gumballs made great bushes and the Sixlets are the perfect size for adding delicate details to a fancy roof.

I think my kids favorite part was the chocolate car, they were so excited our little gingerbread people would have a way to cruise the gingerbread village in style.

While we didn’t have a big party or lots of fancy decorations, we still managed to have lots of fun decorating our gingerbread houses. This sweet tradition never disappoints and is fun for everyone!