Gingerbread Houses-DIY, NO BAKING, and Cheap!

Gingerbread houses can seem very complicated and expensive to make and decorate. Bring some Christmas magic to your home AND make it easy on yourself by reading this post about how to create a cheap and easy DIY gingerbread house without baking!

Gingerbread houses are such a fun decorating activity for kids, especially during a Christmas party or over the holiday break! Speaking of Christmas.  Are you done with your shopping?  Ya me neither.  Create a gingerbread house for your kids to decorate, following the steps below, so they’ll be occupied while you finish your online shopping!

I’m always looking for fun things to do when my kids have friends over that don’t cost a lot of money or take up too much time to prep for.  This is one of my favorite Christmas activities to do with kids over the holidays!  Also, if you are looking for a fun adult activity to do for yourself,  check out this post I did on what to do with an old strand of Christmas lights.  

Materials

Before I share this tutorial with you, I have to preface by saying I adopted this idea from the last school where I taught Prek-4.  The teachers there showed me how to create haunted houses for Halloween out of milk cartons and graham crackers to decorate at our classroom Halloween parties.  After having kids of my own, I figured, why not turn them into little gingerbread houses to decorate for Christmas?!  So that’s what we’ve been doing for years now and it’s one of our most favorite holiday traditions!

Someone on Instagram told me that they use ice-cream cones turned upside down as a Christmas trees (covered in green icing) and pretzels for the windows.  So you may want to add these to your supply list!

STEPS IN MAKING A DIY GINGERBREAD HOUSE WITHOUT BAKING

• First

• Next

• Then

After completing Step 4 above, fill in the spaces where you can still see the milk carton with spray icing.  If time allows, I sometimes let the kids pick what color icing they want for their personal gingerbread house.  We use Christmas colored icing of course!  You will want to cover all of the surface area left where you can see the milk carton.  The more icing the better!!  Don’t forget to draw a sidewalk with icing too!

• Last

And that’s it!!!  After putting the icing on the houses, I usually let each kid go to town with candy, encouraging them to decorate their houses however they want!  This is the best part!  You really get to see each child’s personality come alive in their gingerbread house.

I give each kid a little bowl of Christmas colored M&M’s, Dots, and Peppermints so they don’t have anything to fight over. How dare we except them to share at such a time as this!?

Would you just look at how cute they turned out!?!  This is by far one of my most favorite Christmas traditions that I hope to continue until I have grandchildren of my own! Each year I plan to add new candies and design options to the houses.

I hope I’ve given you a fun, inexpensive activity to do with your kids over the break!  If so, send me pictures of your gingerbread houses!

Merry Christmas!!!!