Royal Icing Decorating Bag Organizer

If you are hosting a gingerbread house decorating party, then this is a great tool for multiple tubes of royal icing. In fact, even if it's just you doing the decorating, this can be a valuable tool, as it holds the icings so that they are easy to pick up and put back. I generally stick with normal royal icing for our gingerbread houses, but on occasion, we've ventured into the unknown, creating tinted icings for our gingerbread houses. While I often resort to a couple of pie tins for laying our icing tubes down, Wilton's Decorating Bag Holder and Organizer, pictured and linked above, is a step toward tidiness!

Christmas Tree Decorations for Your Gingerbread House

If you love detail on your gingerbread houses, then don't miss this fun tool! Gingerbread houses are individual works of art, and many of our houses through the years have included lots of yard art, like trees and snow piles. The pretzel mold featured below provide 4 1/2" by 1 1/2", sufficient size to hold a pretzel rod, retailing at $2.49. Young children may not have the dexterity and manual skills to fill the mold by themselves, but with help, can participate in creating these clever decorative elements for their gingerbread houses. Older children, ages 6-8, may also need help for detail work, while ages 9 to 11 should be able to fill the molds neatly enough. Ages 12 and up, depending on artistic ability and personality, have the potential for creating more colorful detail in the Christmas tree element of this mold. If you are using these decorative pretzels as accents for your gingerbread yard, then use something as a base, like a marshmallow. Anchor it to your base covering with ample royal icing, allow the icing to set up for several minutes, and then insert the pretzel into the marshmallow base. You can invent other means, as well, and believe me, your kids are prime for fantastic brainstorming about how to get their desired gingerbread house effects! Find candy melting supplies here.

Christmas Tree Pretzel Molds Each This unique Christmas Tree Pretzel Mold features one design with six molds. Each Pine Tree Pretzel Mold measures approximately 4 1/2 inches long x 1 1/2 inches wide and holds pretzel rods perfectly. Make delicious chocolately treats for your family and friends this holiday season!

Gingerbread Placemats--All Things Gingerbread

Gingerbread house fans often also enjoy the presence of gingerbread boys and girls in their holiday decor!  If that is the case for you, or for someone special, then you'll appreciate the gingerbread placemats featured here.  From the Kohls St. Nicholas Square collection, there are several pretty gingerbread placemat choices, ranging from cloth, to vinyl.  Perfect, whether you have little ones in the house, or whether you are a kid at heart...gingerbread decor is cheerful and bright!  (**Images below are hyperlinked to specific product pages and details.)

Vinyl Gingerbread Kids Placemat...cute and lighthearted for gingerbread fun, perfect for controlling the gingerbread house and cookie decorating messes, when you work on your holiday baking!

All aspects of gingerbread house and gingerbread cookie decorating are brought together in this pretty cloth placemat!

Round Gingerbread Placemat

Swarovski Gingerbread Ornament/Pendant

If you know someone who loves gingerbread men and gingerbread houses, then you will love this gingerbread Christmas ornament from Swarovski! Measuring 1 1/16 " by 1 1/2", hanging on a white satin ribbon, he's the perfect personal ornament for the gingerbread family's Christmas tree, but he would easily double as a lovely gingerbread pendant! Swarovski is such a pretty Christmas decorating element, already, and in gingerbread, absolutely charming. Image links to product details, but be sure to explore the entire range of pretty Swarovski Christmas tree ornaments.

Sweetheart Playhouse: Gingerbread Gift Ideas for Kids

Do your youngsters love gingerbread houses? A gingerbread house playhouse is a fantastic way to provide hours of imaginative pretend play, with a pretty gingerbread look. Step 2 is known for quality, sturdy plastic play toys, and their playhouses are fun, cute, and perfect for carrying that gingerbread theme into holiday gifts.

Gingerbread House Cookie Jar

Whether you have time to make a gingerbread house, or not, if you love gingerbread houses, then this ceramic gingerbread house cookie jar is a fun decorative piece to use throughout the holiday season. It can serve as a charming table centerpiece, or can be used to house your homebaked Christmas cookies. Create a Christmas scene on your dining table, kitchen counter, or coffee or accent table. Hide special gifts inside during the 12 Days of Christmas, and make it a part of a fun family tradition. **Image links to product details and availability at Target.

Gingerbread Candy Bowls

If you want to put a cute spin on things, when it comes to your gingerbread house decorating, it can be fun to have candy bowls for sorting and separating special candies...the set of gingerbread man bowls pictured above are offered at Target (linked through image), and are fun for using the gingerbread theme to organize your gingerbread house making party. Further, they can be used in other ways through the holiday season: breakfast cereal, ice cream sundaes, holding goodies for dipping in a chocolate fountain...you can be as creative as you wish.

Gingerbread Vinyl Tablecloth

Vinyl Gingerbread Themed Tablecloth
from the St. Nicholas Square Collection

If you are hosting a gingerbread house making party, or just enjoying the theme at home with your kids, a gingerbread vinyl tablecloth is a helpful tool to incorporate into your activities. Vinyl is an easy to clean surface, and my preference when working with little ones. Dinner messes clean up well, as do royal icing messes from gingerbread house decorating. A vinyl tablecloth won't last forever, but it will bring a lovely element of cheer and excitement to the home that loves making gingerbread houses and gingerbread men! You'll find the bright, Christmasy vinyl gingerbread tablecloth at Kohl's.

Gingerbread Candy Corn

If you are looking for unique candies for your gingerbread house decorating, then don't miss this unique option: Gingerbread flavored candy corn. It sounds delicious, and will be one of the more unusual, hard to find items to incorporate into your project. Image links to current product details.

Disney Gingerbread Castle Kit

If your daughter loves the Disney Princess theme, then this pre-baked gingerbread castle set is a fun way to spend time decorating, creating, and imagining! Click image for current costs and availability.

Gingerbread Wall Decals

Wall decals are a fun way to decorate an area temporarily in a given theme, and if gingerbread is your favorite theme of the holidays, then you'll really love these decal choices. Put up a gingerbread mural, of sorts, and stow it away when the season is done! ***Images link to current cost and availability details.





Find these, and many more baking and gingerbread themed wall mural and removable decals for decorating and decking your kitchen and dining walls!

Gingerbread House Perfection?

I've found that perfection is in the eye of the gingerbread artist, consistent with personal goals and vision, when it comes to making a gingerbread house from scratch.  When you are working with kids, to assemble and decorate gingerbread houses, you'll find that a greater number of hands leads to a time intensive project, and attention to detail varies.

Every year, we learn new ways to get better results, but every year, I become less stressed about the appearance of the final products.  First, as the kids get older, their personal touches become more personalized and unique, and they become capable of perfecting their creations according to their own vision.  Small children will put a few candies here and there, and one shouldn't expect a gingerbread house worthy of feature by the Martha Stewart's of the world.  Older children are interesting to watch, though, as you see the variation in modalities displayed in their final results.  My analytical, visual learning children often have very defined decoration patterns, while my more artistic, auditory, and creative children find unique ways to work a theme into their gingerbread art. 

In preparing, I've found that organization is important for sanity's sake.  I've also found some different baking and cutting techniques that provide a more standard outcome in the gingerbread panels.  I don't worry so much about the assembly, in terms of perfectly placed icing, because this often gets covered in the decorating process.

You'll find my cutting techniques here, and a guide to my gingerbread house how to's here.

Personalized Gingerbread House Tin

Personalize a Gingerbread House Themed Tin

One of my favorite Christmas gifts to send to far away family or friends, especially those we've previously enjoyed sharing a gingerbread house party with, is to make and send gingerbread house pieces that I've made from scratch, along with some of our favorite candies.

If you are going to be baking gingerbread houses, your nieces and nephews, or granchildren, will be thrilled with the prospect of receiving a set of pieces long distance.  Include that set in a tin, padded with marshmallows to avoid breakage...whether you use this personalized gingerbread tin, or a simple tin or box from your big box retailer, you'll be making a special moment for the recipient!  You can find coordinating mini tins, as well.

Wilton Gingerbread House Kit: Prebaked Gingerbread Activities

Prebaked Gingerbread House Kits provide
the opportunity for the busy household to enjoy the fun
of gingerbread house decoration, in spite of the busy-ness of the season.

If you are in a hectic household, the holidays can seem difficult to navigate.  In our busiest years, it's tough to find time to bake, and making a gingerbread house from scratch may be too much to handle.  This Wilton pre-baked kit is an example of a means to the end:  the kids can decorate a gingerbread house, but Mom doesn't have to figure out where to fit all the steps of from scratch gingerbread baking into the schedule.  The kids won't mind the shortcut...the decorating is the highlight for the youngsters.

Non Edible Gingerbread House Craft Kits

Gingerbread House Crafts

If you are incorporating a gingerbread house theme into your holiday season, then you may find this set of gingerbread style craft houses a fun diversion for the kids.  Whether you plan a 12 days of Gingerbread theme, or whether you just need a few projects on hand to distract the kids while you bake, wrap, or shop, this is a gingerbread themed set that has the materials prepared, and included.

Gingerbread Playhouse/Gingerbread House Cottage

Build a Beautiful Gingerbread Playhouse for the Kiddos!

There are playhouses, and then, there are Gingerbread Playhouses!  This pretty gingerbread cottage is a DIY playhouse, a fun addition to any yard, and a fantastic alternative to a fort.  A little more complicated than an edible gingerbread house, the kit includes hardware and pre-cut panels, trusses, etc.  The ambitious mom or dad who decides to take this project on will have to provide a few additional building materials, along with tools.  Read more about this fun gingerbread house project.

Inflatable Gingerbread Yard Decor

Life Size Gingerbread Decorations
Carry the Gingerbread House and Gingerbread Cookie theme into
your outdoor decorating!

If you want to carry the gingerbread house theme into your yard decor this year, you'll enjoy some of these inflatable, life size gingerbread decorations. The inflatable gingerbread oven, shown above, is a whimsical depiction of the baking of gingerbread people, and with the gingerbread boy and girl shown below, you'll be able to add as many life sized characters as you like to your sweet decorative theme.

Inflatable Gingerbread House for the Yard

Inflatable Gingerbread House Decoration for the Yard.

If you love inflatable outdoor decorations, then this is a fun inflatable gingerbread house, great if you are emphasizing the gingerbread house theme this year.  Lifesized gingerbread houses aren't currently commonplace, so this is definitely unique.  The lights and size will definitely make an impression on young, and old!

Gingerbread House Parties: Divvy Up in Advance

Mini Plastic Paint Bucket Favors
Perfect for pre-distributing Gingerbread House
Candy Decorations

Organizing a gingerbread house decorating party is fun, but takes a lot of work. The more people you include, the more organized you will want to be, especially if younger children are involved. While teens and tweens can manage their gingerbread architecture with little direction, younger than 10 years old tend to need some oversight and assistance.

One of the issues that can crop up is the use of candies. If one child decides to construct a complete border fence, and needs to use ALL of the Lego candies in the process, other children will probably complain that they didn't get any. One helpful solution is to pre-distribute gingerbread house candies in Christmas themed containers, or even in simple cereal bowls.

If you know exactly how many kids will be participating (and/or adults), then measuring the candies fairly amongst the containers will alleviate this stress later. Once the decorating is under way, you can allow the kids to negotiate and trade with each other for different items, but at least, this way, everyone has a chance at those coveted Lego candy blocks.

The plastic, mini paint bucket, pictured above, is a fun way to divvy up your gingerbread house decorations, and adds to the construction and creativity theme of the occasion.

Check out some cute alternatives:

Gingerbread Activities to Keep Youngsters Busy While You Bake



Gingerbread Sort and Snap
Snap Together Gingerbread People for toddlers and pre-schoolers.

If you need to keep small children occupied while you mix, bake, and assemble gingerbread houses, it's fun to provide a gingerbread themed toy or activity. Older children may enjoy coloring books, but toddlers may prefer a hands on activity. It's fine to let a very young child help, but the attention may waver. TheGingerbread Sort & Snap snap together gingerbread people shown above are a fun way for an active pre-schooler to stay busy!