Christmas Crafts: Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses

Today I helped my daughter’s second grade class decorate gingerbread houses. To make this Christmas activity manageable for twenty students at a time, the students made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and small milk cartons before decorating them with various sweets. I know it sounds weird, but they turned out really well!

So if you’re looking for a simple alternative to making homemade gingerbread houses, but not this simple, I recommend these graham cracker gingerbread houses.

Here’s What You Need to Make Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses:

• Graham crackers (No surprise there.)
• Small milk carton (The size kids get when they buy lunch at school.)
• White frosting (The best glue ever.)
• Popsicle sticks (Safer than giving a bunch of second graders knives.)

Any assortment of small sweets would work, but here’s what we used.

• Gum drops
• Mini marshmallows
• Red licorice
• Chocolate chips
• Mints (The round striped kind.)
• Skittles
• M&M’s
• Shredded coconut (For snow.)

Needless to say, I was glad this was a school project and not being done in my kitchen!

Here’s How to Make Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses:

1. Spread white frosting with a popsicle stick on each graham cracker piece before sticking the graham crackers to the sides of the milk carton, including the slanted sides to create the roof of the gingerbread house.

2. Spread white frosting on the other side of the graham crackers wherever you want to attach a sweet (i.e., gum drop.) The more frosting you use, the messier it is the better the sweets stick to the gingerbread house.

3. Use a variety of sweets to decorate your graham cracker gingerbread house.

Each child’s gingerbread house was colorful, creative and a cavity waiting to happen!