The winter holidays offer the opportunity to create wonderful new traditions with your family. Traditions provide a sense of familiar comfort during a hectic season, and they also offer families the opportunity to create amazing memories. We have a few family traditions in our family, but by far the fan favorite is our annual Gingerbread Architecture Contest held on Christmas Eve.
This contest was created back in the day when it would have been costly to purchase the pre-packaged gingerbread house kits for all five kids. So we created our own method that has proven to be creative, and silly, and fun, and full of memories!
Over the years, the creations have ranged from simple houses to ornate scenes including the art gallery shown here.
The rules are simple. Random teams of two are formed by drawing names from a hat (to keep the playing field even, try to pair an older child or an adult with the littles if you can).
Each team starts with:
- One package of graham crackers
- One tub of white frosting (not whipped, it doesn't hold everything together as well)
Shared decorations (usually purchased from the dollar store) include:
- Food coloring or gel to tint the frosting
- Assorted candies: mints, gummy bears and worms, jelly beans, gum, licorice, sour candies, hard candies, gum drops, mini candy canes
- Assorted snacks in fun shapes: cereal, crackers, pretzels, cookies
- Assorted baking decorations: colored sugar, red hots, sprinkles
- Teams are also allowed to raid the cupboards and pantry if they check with me first (flour makes great snow). But once it's on the table, it is fair game for all teams to share!
The creativity each year never fails to amaze us. A few examples include the carnival, winter cabin in the woods (complete with a Groot figurine), and the reindeer pen pictured here. Can you spot Rudolph in the crowd?
To prepare your work area, cover the table with newspaper - trust me the candy and frosting get super messy! Provide bowls to mix the colored frosting, and plastic knives or spreaders that are safe for littles to use to spread the frosting. Make sure you provide a tray for each creation such as a pizza pan or plastic tray from the dollar store or even a piece of sturdy cardboard.
Teams have full creative license to build whatever inspires them - from the suburban sled hill on the left to the city brownstones on the right.
Sometimes the entries have nothing to do with houses at all. As the kids get older, it's so much fun to see their interests come alive through their construction efforts. We have had creations from a variety of themes including those pictured above: a scene from Star Wars and a reenactment of Washington Crossing the Delaware!
If you want to actually make it a contest, assign a judge who can award a prize of some sort to each team such as most creative, most sturdy, best use of color, etc.
The kids have so much fun with Gingerbread Night that they don't even realize the educational aspects that are attached to the construction including teamwork, sharing, creativity, cooperation, planning, and even a little physics.
I encourage you to start your own Gingerbread night with your family. Whether it's the ease of the store-bought kits or this method using some random ingredients, you are sure to make your own holiday memory together. And who knows, it might be so much fun that it becomes a new tradition in your household!
