Easy DIY Gingerbread House Kit for kids complete with a free printable so you can create some yourself this Christmas. Great activity for holiday parties or after opening their Night Before Christmas Box.
Oh how my kids love Christmas time. I love finding activities we can do together. This year we created a DIY Gingerbread House Kit with a free printable so you too can have a fun afternoon together! This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of the Chinet® brand. (affiliate links present)
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Easy DIY Gingerbread House Kit
What’s more fun than building a gingerbread house at Christmas time? Well presents I guess, but these are a must during this time of year. Put together a kit for each child with everything they will need to build a perfect edible house.
Of course you can go all out and use Easy Homemade Gingerbread Dough to bake pieces or just use grahams like we did here. Either way you’ll have the perfect holiday activity for your family, or a party! Here is what you will need to create a few of your own:
What supplies do you need for a gingerbread house?
- Small packages of graham crackers (as shown), or 7 halves
- A variety of candies
- White frosting that is stiff
- Small baggies (for frosting)
- 1 plastic spoon per person (for spreading frosting)
- Ribbon
- Large study Chinet plates and tumblers (to serve a drink and snack to them while they’re creating).
- If you’d like to use our gingerbread house printable you can do so here.
What can I use to stick my gingerbread house together?
There is edible adhesive that comes in a bottle with a tip already on there which is handy just to create the house itself. Then you can make royal icing more in bulk to stick the candies on top and when it dries it will hold it on there well, better than a regular tub.
How to Make Gingerbread House Kits
It’s important to use a large sturdy plate to contain all the items you will need to make your kits, so these dinner plates are great.
- First get everything you need out on a table and make an assembly line of sorts, especially if you have several gingerbread house kits to make. This is what mine looked like.
- I found these already packaged up graham crackers that had 8 halves inside. That was perfect because each person needs 7 (so 1 for snacking).
- I put 1 of those, a few candies, a plastic spoon so they can use the back of it to spread the frosting. Add some frosting to a small baggie and put that inside your gingerbread house kit too.
- Once they’re ready you can just clip the edge off the baggie and they can pipe it on to their graham crackers to create their houses.
Use whatever types of candies you like but many times I will hit the stores right after Halloween and grab the small packages that are almost being given away and save them for this activity.
They are already portioned out and then you can put in several different types with little effort and they will have a lot to choose from. Or…just buy larger bags of different candies that are as colorful as possible and put them into snack size zipper bags.
Place them inside your two plates. Put a 2nd dinner plate on top of the one holding all of your items and wrap it with a bow so it stays together.
Gingerbread House Kits for Parties
Add your label and you’re ready whenever they are! When they untie their DIY Gingerbread House Kit the top plate will be where they can build their house, and the bottom plate will hold all their “goodies”! Here’s a peek of my girls building and snacking in action. 😉
Is it cheaper to make your own gingerbread house?
Last year I was going to buy one for each child and there were like $20 each!! With three kids that was a no go, just not worth it. Those come with really firm cookies so hard that they don’t even want to eat them so it really is more than a waste. SO I think it is well worth it to make our own. We can use candies we love and grahams are so good.
I helped my younger 2 make their houses, but for my oldest daughter making the house is a big part of the fun. You could make them ahead of time too and just omit them from your kit, just include everything else.
How to host a gingerbread house party
First off you will want to make one of these all prepared for each person there, at least the kids anyway. Have a holiday movie you can play while everyone is working, or at least play Christmas music. Nobody will want to actually eat these when done so have something to enjoy like Gingerbread Dump Cake instead.
You could have a game to play when this is done too. Make it a competition if you like where everyone votes, not for themselves, and see who is the winner.
I served chilled sparkling apple cider and air fryer gingerbread cookies while they were working on their creations. It was a great afternoon. We might have to do this again when the cousins come over too. Let us know how your kits turn out this year!
