How to make and decorate a Gingerbread House (2024)

Published: Nov 7, 2023 by Laura · This post may contain affiliate links.

Making and decorating a gingerbread house can seem like a daunting project but it's really very simple! Let me walk you through how to bake your own houses and my best tips for decorating them with kids and I've included a free printable template!

One of my kids absolute favourite Christmas traditions is making and decorating gingerbread houses. I had made a couple over the years but never with kids (we stuck to standard gingerbread cookies) and it wasn't until a friend of mine suggested we do it together as a December activity that we decided to give it a try.

Of course the first year we decided to go for it we both had new babies (making a grand total of 7 kids between us aged 7 and under!!) But would you believe that we pulled it off and now all of the older kids start asking about when we are doing it again by about July!

So if we can do it, so can you! And I'm going to break down the whole process so that you can have as much success and fun with it as we do.

I've also included a free printable template for you to use to cut out the houses - simply print it, cut out each piece and use those to create your shapes for the houses.

Components of the gingerbread house

There are 3 main componenets to a gingerbread house

• Gingerbread cookie walls - I use my regular gingerbread cookie recipe for the walls - they hold up really well structurally and taste amazing
• Royal icing - this is the glue that holds the houses together and is used for decorating. You don't want to use any other kind of icing here - royal icing dries hard and fast and is what makes these successful
• Lollies for decorating - it is entirely up to you what you use to decorate the houses - you can choose traditional looking lollies or just go for the ones your kids love! Below I have included a list of where I purchased our lollies from.

Gingerbread house template

You can buy gingerbread house cutters but I've found that they are all quite big and for our little people, a smaller house is much easier to manage. I've put together a printable template - all you need to do is print both pages, cut out each piece of the house, place the cut out pieces on the rolled out dough and cut around them with a sharp knife or a pizza cutter.

The pieces required are:

• Side walls x 2
• Front and back walls (with optional door on the front)
• Roof pieces x2

You can also make a chimney or cut out windows if you want - there is no limit to your imagination!

Instructions

Let's break down the whole process into short, manageable steps.

Step 1: make the gingerbread dough - the dough comes together easily but needs to be chilled before rolling out and baking, otherwise it will be too sticky to handle. I like to make the dough and squish it into flattish discs before putting in the fridge so that it's easier to roll out once chilled.

Step 3: Bake the walls and allow to them to cool. If you have made them ahead of time, store them in an airtight container at room temperature until you are ready to decorate them.

Step 4: Make the royal icing and split it between as many snaplock bags as you need (we do once per person decorating) Cut a small hole in the corner of the bag to pipe the icing out of.

Step 5: Decorate the wall and roof pieces using royal icing and lollies/candy.

Hint: We have found that when doing this with kids, it is easiest to let them decorate the walls and roof pieces before assembling the house. This way they are able to lie them flat and stick lollies on easily rather than trying to do it on a constructed house.

The one I did, I assembled the house first and then decorated it and that worked really well for me, so both methods are fine, just choose which will work best for you!

Step 6: Use the royal icing to assemble the house - use as much as you need, you can always cover it up with decorations and the royal icing is what will hold your house together, so more is often better in this case!

I like to use royal icing to stick the base of the house onto the board or plate for extra stablility. You might also find it helpful to use a large peg to help hold up the first wall as you are constructing the house.

Step 7: Make any touch ups to the decorations, then stand back and admire your masterpiece!! Snap a quick picture as proof that you did it and of course if you have kids involved, this is about the time that they will start to deconstruct it!

The best candy/lollies to use

There are no hard and fast rules about what lollies are best on a gingerbread house - over the years we have used almost anything - we usually go for whatever we think the kids will like and things that are not too heavy.

Here are a few of my favourites for a more traditional looking gingerbread house

• Mint pinwheels
• Red, white and green m&m's/pebbles
• Mini marshmallows
• Mini sherbert fizz lollies
• Fruit sticks
• Raspberry drops
• Pink smokers
• Christmas sprinkles
• Candy canes

Tips for decorating with kids

If you are looking through this post and thinking it seems like a lot of work, mess and just a bit chaotic for you, let me break down how we make it more manageable:

• Bake the houses a day or 2 in advance. This is not part of our day with the kids at this stage. They might want to take part when they are older but for now, just the decorating is enough for them and is plenty for one day. I bake them ahead of time and store them in sealed containers at room temperature until we are ready to decorate.
• Give each child a snaplock bag with royal icing in. They are responsible for their bag and it actually does keep the mess fairly contained. Then when it's time to clean up, you can just throw the bags away - it might not be the most eco friendly approach but in this situation it's what works best for us. You can definitely use reusable piping bags if you prefer.
• Put down a tablecloth and give each child a tray or a plate with their house pieces on it. Put the lollies in the middle of the table - you could also allocate each child their own lollies if you would rather. Each child then has their own station which they like.
• Let the kids decorate the pieces before constructing the house. It is much easier to pipe the icing and stick lollies onto a wall that is lying flat on the table rather than one that is upright as part of a house.
• For younger kids (I would say 2 and under) make a few extra wall pieces or cut out some gingerbread men or other shaped cookies - this is enough for them to feel included but without having the pressure of making a whole extra house!

And let's address probably one of the biggest things about giving kids free rein on a boatload of candy and a bag of icing - at what point do you say enough is enough?

We have found that generally the kids are very excited to dig into the lollies at the start when we lay them out but then once they get into the decorating they are so focused on the project that they cool down on the eating front!

That's not to say they stop completely, but over the years of doing this we have found that the best approach is to go in with a VERY relaxed approach and know that they are going to go a little crazy on the sugar, but that it's all part of the fun!

Once they've finished their houses, they run around outside and burn all the energy off!

FAQ

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