Gingerbread House Kits

A fun way to enjoy the holiday season is to invite several friends over and have a gingerbread house party. Gingerbread house kits make it very simple to get started, since you can have all the pieces ready ahead of time. For younger kids, you can even pre-assemble the houses, so all they need to do is show up and get decorating.

To ensure that your party runs smoothly, try to keep the kids all around the same age, or have something to keep younger ones occupied, since they will lose interest faster. You should also have plenty of royal icing mixed up, you may need more than is in the kits. Have every kid bring a bag of candy so you have lots of extra, too . . . . it' s hard for little mouths to resist that sweetness, so make sure you have plenty available for munching AND decorating.

Get enough gingerbread house kits for everyone and if you really want to be careful, an extra to use for parts in case of breakage!

Did you know that gingerbread houses were originally made in Germany? While gingerbread cake or cookies have been used in many European countries for centuries, the majority of them were flat shapes decorated with gold paint or white icing and sold at fairs. Women used to think that by eating a gingerbread "husband" at the fair, they would stand a better chance of finding a man to marry them.

It's not clear if the German "lebkuchen" houses came before or after the Grimm Brothers decided to turn this tasty delight into something sinister in their story of Hansel and Gretel. It certainly hasn't affected our enjoyment of the cookie houses, though! Thousands of North Americans build their own gingerbread houses every year to decorate for Christmas, adorning them with candies galore.

So, you want to buy a gingerbread house kit, but you don't want it to be totally kit-like sitting on your mantel. The best way to ensure that your house looks homemade is to go ahead and add some extras that aren't included in the kit. Usually these kits come with their own candy, but there is no reason you can't add your own.

Choose candies that are fairly small and which will last for a while. For example, chocolate isn't a very good choice since it tends to turn white after a bit and will melt if the room is too warm. Gumdrops, mints, suckers and other types of candy are excellent for gingerbread houses. So are wafer cookies if you want to create a fence or roof shingles.

Interested in something a bit more natural? Then try using banana chips as shingles, carob chips for trim and dried cranberries or raisins to decorate. Yogurt covered raisins and peanuts are a great snack that will let you decorate healthily, as well. Look at other types of dried fruits and nuts for more ideas.