Gingerbread Houses

Have you ever made a gingerbread house? I used to make one every year when my son was a kid, and I used to make them when my sister, my brother and myself where kids too, but the last house I made was in 2002 and since then I haven’t been able to go ahead with projects that require that level of physical input.

I have however a whole section ON MY WEB-SITE dedicated to the art of gingerbread houses and at this time of year it is very well visited, especially by American and Canadian readers. Here are a couple of photos of one of the gingerbread houses I made in 2002, more like a gingerbread mansion I suppose :-) I made all of it from scratch, including the drawing and pattern for the house. I have included everything needed on my web-site for anyone who would like to give it a go; there are drawings for the pieces needed, recipe for the dough, instructions for assembly, instructions for decoration and some gingerbread history and further links.

I have also made a separate VISITOR PAGE for all the people who have sent in photos to me of their own gingerbread houses, many of them using my pattern. It’s so fun to see my gingerbread mansion decorated in so many different variations. If you decide to make my gingerbread mansion, please send me a couple of photos for my visitor page, you will find an email link and details of what to do on the visitor page. If you want to give it a go you need to start soon, very soon, it takes a good few days depending on how big house you want to make, and if you are going for my big mansion I do advice that all the pieces are allowed to dry for a few days after decorating before assembly, as it makes it easier to put together and less likely to crumble under the sheer weight of the decoration.

The gingerbread house section of my web-site is actually the most visited part of my whole web-site, unbelievable, since apart from the visitor page it is no longer updated :-) But it draws visitors the whole year and especially in November and December. Here in the UK, where I now live, making gingerbread houses is not a tradition and I have met many people who didn’t even know what it was. I can only say that if you got children or grandchildren, this is an excellent thing to do together in the evenings now before Christmas; a great display for everyone to admire. And if you haven’t got children, so what? You can still make yourself a gingerbread house! And if you feel it is not enough time to make a gingerbread house finished till Christmas Day then why not make one for New Years eve instead? Just give it a go, it is so fun ;-)

Until next time, take care.