Graham House Village

I had my heart set on our family decorating Christmas cookies together, but the kids were still sick enough that I didn't want to eat anything they had touched or coughed on. The kids had asked several times if we could do some gingerbread houses, so I considered that, instead. Last year, I helped Will make a graham cracker house at his school party, and it was frustrating waiting for the icing to harden. I searched online for some other easy ideas, and decided to used melted almond bark candy for the adhesive. Last night I constructed the houses for the kids. I also decorated one just to figure out when to attach candy with the cookie icing and when to use the almond bark. ... then I kept on going. This was my kind of fun :)

Today, Allen and I helped the kids. They got to pick out and open all the candy they thought they'd need. It was a great way to get rid of some of our Halloween candy (we threw out all the opened stuff that didn't make it to the decorated house.) It was fun to be creative with some of the different treats -- and yes, they tasted plenty. Ben got creative and turned candy corn into a camp fire. Jon had a great time with the icing decorations. Maddie just wanted to do lots of lollipop trees, and I couldn't help but think back to Candyland games when I saw her finished project. Will was the one who started the whole idea, but he was the first one ready to be done with it.

Here are the finished homes. First off is Maddie's... Check out the tasty chocolate graham cracker house with a cinnamon cracker door, rows of lollipop trees, layers of red shingles with snow, and a long tootsie-roll chimney that didn't quite work out as planned.

Will's chocolate house is topped with decorative Smarties, the same type of "stones" that line the walkway to the door. Will chose to work more on the landscaping: a Twix bench sits in a garden of Skittle flowers and Whopper statues.

Ben sniffled his way through his project with a bit of help from Daddy. He was so proud of his campfire made with Tootsie Rolls and candy corn. His wreath is a lime Toosie Roll, and he even has a chimney made of graham cracker scraps. He liked Maddie's chocolate floppy chimney enough that he made one like it, too.



Jon had a blast with the icing. Each time I looked at his project he had added something new. There was a letter J on one hald the roof and white lines on another part. He added sprinkles to icing, and icing to sprinkes. His garden had a brown stone seat and lots of colorful "flowers" and "trees." 

Did I mention I had fun with this? Here is the one I made the night before the kids did theirs... my practice house that was going to be my only house. I used an ice cream cone for the tree -- the kids got tired of the project before they got to the trees. The stream and waterfall are some blue Twizzlers that I microwaved and stretched. The banks of the stream are Tootsie Rolls (my favorite candy to use because you can shape it like dough if you warm it a bit.)

Allen suggested I try to make a house with candy windows that light up. After a bit of experimenting -- or a lot -- I crushed colorful candy canes and melted them into a flat sheet. Some of those worked well enough to glue to the inside of the windows. We built the house so we could just lift it up to put a battery powered tea-light under it, and I love how it turned out. What a great idea Allen had!!... I just somehow turned it into an entire afternoon of creating. I found a pretty use for some of the Halloween ghost candies by placing them in a KitKat garden pot.

Our family now has a pretty little village of gingerbread-style houses lined up on the shelf. The kids have coughed all over them, so there isn't any chance I will let them eat them. I think all of us had enough fun that it may turn into a new tradition for us.