Awesome spins on a classic holiday activity
From a pretzel cabin to a painted pasta abode, click through these unique and fun DIY ideas to inspire your next family holiday craft project.
Mini Manors
Making cookies with your tots has long been a time-honored family holiday tradition. That’s why we love this DIY gingerbread house idea from Oh Sweet Day. To get the dark color and rich flavor, mom Fanny used cooking molasses to make the scrumptious cookies that construct the house. Follow the complete recipe at the full post to make one large and six small gingerbread houses. Use royal icing to bind the cookies, then let your little helpers decorate to their heart’s content!
Pretzel Ranch
The folks over at Worth Pinning have shared their version of a rustic “gingerbread” house using another edible snack — pretzels! Mom Carrie said her kids loved getting their hands messy with this project, so much so that they built an entire holiday ranch — complete with a pretzel cabin, pretzel barn (with an adorable snowman) and a pretzel doghouse! You can use icing to keep the house edible, or a glue gun if you are in it more for the design factor. Sprinkles, M&Ms, gum drops and red hot candies add a splash of holiday color while white icing makes for the perfect snow-capped roof.
Quaint Cobblestones
The elegant simplicity of this gingerbread house with cobblestones from Tikkido makes this a must-do project for the family this holiday season. Instead of brightly colored candy, blogger Nikki used only white royal icing to adorn her house. The little cobblestones give it an extra-special touch as a winding walkway. Your little bakers will love rolling out the small dough balls and pressing them down with their fingers to make the cobblestones. Let your imagination run wild and attach them as a unique roof tile or even a stone wall.
Sticky Siding
Here’s another interesting spin on the typical gingerbread house from All For the Memories — gum stick siding! The houses are made with gingerbread or graham crackers with various sizes of gum sticks (you can cut them as needed with scissors) used as siding, roofing, bricks, doors and shutters. Candy pieces stand in for Christmas lights and door knobs and you can even fashion little trees from the leftover gum wrappers. How cute is that?! Check out the full post to find out how to make your own.
Pink Party
It’s Christmas with a splash of pink with this sweet little gingerbread house craft from the fine folks at Pizzazzerie! First, follow helpful instructions on how to make gingerbread houses (there are three easy and adorable options). Use pink and white bows, ribbons, icing, candies and sprinkles to decorate. And if pink's not your thing, you can decorate the houses with any color palette your heart desires! Then break out your finest tea set, throw in some delectable homemade holiday treats and you are ready for a delightful — and festive — Christmas tea party fit for your little prince or princess.
Gingerbread Gift
This resourceful and super cute gingerbread house gift box idea from Consumer Crafts would make a perfect present for family, friends, neighbors or even your little one's favorite teacher. To make this special treat, construct an edible gingerbread house or buy a paper mache house box set. You'll also need glitter snow, glitter glue to simulate icing and any decorative candy elements you want to add to the house. Follow the design at the full post or come up with your very own. Fill it with homemade Christmas cookies, candy or even tea. Such a clever gift idea!
Edible Ornaments
If you are short on time this holiday season, this mini gingerbread house from Craft Storming is just the ticket — plus, it doubles as an ornament for your Christmas tree! Make one for each of your children to decorate — they can help mix the cookie dough and deck out their own house with colorful candies and icing of their choosing. Mama Laura used heart candies, cookies, small candy canes and sprinkles. The addition of a simple ribbon gives you the option to hang it from your tree or anywhere else in your home. Get recipe tips and step-by-step instructions at the post.
Painted Pasta
We adore this whimsical faux gingerbread birdhouse craft from Club Chica Circle that uses various dried pastas painted to perfection for an eclectic look. Find a plain wooden birdhouse at your local craft store or make a traditional gingerbread house. Then, gather festive paint colors and your favorite fun pasta shapes — like mini wheels, bowties and tubular rigatoni — and get busy painting! Mom Pauline said this was a particularly fun project to do with her tween daughter. Together, they figured out the easiest way to coat the pasta pieces using a paper plate and a small brush and even added special design touches, like polka-dots on the bow ties and stripes on the spiral pieces to imitate candy canes.
Funky Felt
Pink Stripey Socks has a unique spin on the classic gingerbread house — this one is constructed with just felt and cardboard. We love that you can redecorate with the felt “candy” decorations over and over again for a new design every time. Mom Leslie recommends sticking a little Velcro to the backs of the smaller decorative elements to make it easier for the kids to take them on and off. So clever! To make your own, head to the full post to print out the template and follow the simple seven-step tutorial.
Gamer’s Delight
This idea from Our Nerd Home is sure to bring out the geek in all of us. Called “The Gingerbread D20,” this edible 20-sided dice is actually made of graham crackers and melted down white chocolate as a binding element. First, you'll measure out and cut graham cracker edges into triangles. Then, using the chocolate to bind, create three domes of five triangles. Your little ones can help paint on the numbers with icing. Blogger Kat warns that while it’s a “patience-trying” project the results are super satisfying. Check out the full post for expert tips and tricks to make your own. Happy gaming!
