How To Host a Gingerbread Decorating Party!

Kids Gingerbread House Decorating Party!


      The Holiday season is in full swing and so aren't all the festive parties that go along with it!  
I for one can not go through a Christmas season without hosting a Gingerbread House Decorating Party for the kiddos.  Just watching them and their creative little minds at work as they place each piece of candy just right to create their ultimate masterpiece is the best part for me!
      Setting up a Gingerbread House Decorating Party doesn't have to be overwhelming. It can be relatively easy by following some of these fun and easy tips.
-Wrapping Paper for 1 can be your best friend when hosting a party for children.  I love using it for table runners and even place mats.  It comes in endless patterns and designs and the best part is the cleanup is a snap!  
-Secondly, this year I decided to use Graham Crackers to build my gingerbread houses.  The size was perfect and it took no time at all to create.  A nice touch was adding sugar cones as trees for an added element for the kids to decorate.  They loved it!
-And lastly, I used little white ramekins placed by each child sorted and filled with all the different kinds of candies.  I also made sure to twist and secure the pastry bags that were filled with icing with elastics and bakers twine as to prevent it from seeping out of the top.



     The icing I used was definitely a key ingredient to the houses staying together as well as they did.  It worked like cement! Super easy recipe:

Gingerbread House Icing

4 Egg Whites
1 tsp. Cream of Tartar
4 Cups Powdered Sugar

Beat egg whites and Cream of Tartar
till stiff, then slowly add in powdered sugar and beat for 5 minutes.
 Keep covered till ready to use.
Pipes out like frosting and dries like cement!

     Though not necessary, I LOVE having a favor for everyone to take home at all my parties.  These darling "gingerbread" bags were so easy to make.  I simply took a brown paper lunch bag and drew a gingerbread house scene on them using a white chalkboard marker.  I then folded down the top to look like a roof, punched a couple holes, added some bakers twine and with a mini clothespin, clipped on a cute little "thank you" tag!  You can certainly fill them with whatever you'd like but I chose a cute little hot cocoa kit. Cause who doesn't love hot cocoa on a cold winters day!

 
     In my opinion, every party needs a dessert table of some degree!  I kept this one rather simple with only a couple yummy treats.  I figured all the kids would already have their fix of sweets from the sampling of all the candies from their houses!  For the backdrop, I used a simple painting of wintry birch trees and strung the most adorable Christmas tree tassel garland from it.  This is probably one of my favorite elements from the party.  It was also so easy to create.  I simply hot glued some mini pom poms and glitter stars to the green tassels and whah lah..... the cutest Christmas tree garland you ever did see!

 
      For desserts, I kept it quite simple with some traditional vanilla cupcakes frosted with vanilla buttercream, gingerbread men cookies and some super yummy chocolate cake pops from my friend Jenny Cookie's  Bakeshop.



      
     A couple more darling design elements that are easy to create and add a lovely pop of fun to any holiday party are the coffee filter trees and the pop pom decor on the back of the chairs.
Tutorial on the trees coming soon!

     
      All the kids really enjoyed decorating their houses and trees and were exited for me to snap a picture of their fabulous finished creations!
 






















 Gingerbread House Decorating Parties are always a hit for all kids big and small.  
I hope you found a little inspiration to use for your next one!