Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses. Easily create gingerbread houses for your children to decorate this holiday season. Each house uses 6 graham crackers.
One of the activities we do each year for our activity advent calendar is to make gingerbread houses. Some years I make the gingerbread from scratch and we make elaborate houses.
Other years, we go the simple route and make gingerbread houses from graham crackers. This is so easy and fun for the kids!
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Supplies:
- Graham Crackers
- Icing (can be store bought or homemade royal icing)
- Cream of Tartar
- Lots of Candy
Prepare Your Icing
Start by preparing your icing. I like this recipe from Wilton for royal icing: https://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing.
Or if you are using store-bought frosting, you will mix approximately 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar per cup of icing. This will help your icing to harden.
Place some of your icing in a piping bag with a large round tip. Or you can use a gallon size Ziploc bag and cut a hole in the corner.
Cut the Graham Crackers
For each house, you will need six graham crackers. Leave four graham crackers whole for the two long sides and two roof pieces.
Cut two angled pieces to create the supports for the roof.
Cut off a small straight section across the top of the graham cracker. Then, cut two corners off the top to create a triangle shape. Do this again for the second graham cracker.
Assemble the Graham Cracker House
Start by adding a row of icing to each straight side of your angled roof pieces. You will attach the two long sides to this icing.
Add the same icing to the opposite side and attach. Then, add icing to the top edges and attach your two roof pieces. Lastly, add icing along the top where the two roof pieces meet.
Be generous with your icing. This is the “glue” that holds the houses together.
Helpful Tip: It helps to make the houses in advance so they have time to harden and set. Otherwise, your house pieces will be sliding around while the kids try to decorate them.
Decorate the Gingerbread House
Now, comes the fun part! Prepare your decorating station. I like to use a large divided tray to make the candy easily accessible. You can also separate the candy into small bowls.
Favorite decorations:
Dollar Tree and Walmart both have a good selection of candy you can get very inexpensively.
Place an assembled house on a paper plate. Give each child a small bowl of icing with a little spoon. You can also add some icing to a small sandwich-size Ziploc bag with a hole cut in the corner.
Have the kids decorate their graham cracker gingerbread houses. The icing will harden as it dries.
I love to see how each of the houses turns out so differently for all of us, and from year to year. Decorating gingerbread houses is one of our favorite family traditions.
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Kasey says
How long does it take for the frosting to harden? I would love to make these with my afterschool program kids but we only have 1.5 hours together! Thank you for the wonderful idea!
Laura Silva says
Kasey,
I don’t have an exact time as it really depends on what type of icing you use, and how thick you apply it. But to be safe I would give the houses an hour to dry. In your case, I would suggest pre-making the houses, and then have the kids decorate them during your program. Hope that helps!
Laura
Sonia says
How much icing is needed per house?
Laura Silva says
I have never actually measured before. We usually make four houses, plus decorate them, and only use about 1/2 – 3/4 of a can of frosting for all of them.
Rosa says
I’m thinking about doing this for my classroom party. Can the kids eat the store-bought frosting mixed with cream of tartar?
Laura Silva says
Yes! Cream of tartar is an ingredient used in lots of recipes and is completely edible.
Laura
Havok says
These turned out so cute! And so easy to have the kids do – no worrying about making gingerbread, they could even shape their own graham cracker pieces!