Since I moved into my house I have worked really hard to build my own traditions in my home. (After all, why should it be only the married and the parents among us that get to celebrate and build?) One of those traditions is family Christmas Eve at my house. The others are entertainments at my house for friends: a Halloween party and a holiday, gingerbread decorating party.
The main issue with the gingerbread party is having houses (or other stuctures) for people to decorate. I've tried baking them and I've bought tiny village kits to put together. Both are good options, but the first is time consuming and the second can be expensive. This year I decided to go with a 3rd option: making houses from graham crackers. Still takes *some* time, but it was really affordable and made houses of a nice size for decorating.
Here's how I did it....
Each house requires about 6.5 full-sheet graham crackers. (Probably more, though, due to the chance of breakage while working.)
For each house, cut 2 of the crackers like this:
Then you will have main pieces like this:
Pipe frosting along two sides of one cracker:
Stand up the crackers on edge and attach a side wall piece:
Attach the other side wall piece:
Pipe frosting on the other long wall piece and attach it:
When frosting is partially set up, pipe frosting along cut edges of the side walls and the top of the long walls:
Put roof piece on, and repeat on other side. If your graham crackers are like mine, you'll have a space at the top where the roof doesn't meet:
To fill it in, frosting-glue two partial cracker-quarters (you might have to cut one to make it a bit shorter:
Also, you may want to frosting-glue the house down to a piece of foam core from the beginning. It not only helps with stability but also gives a "lawn" for decorating!
This year's graham crackers were really awesome!
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