My family and my next door neighbors spend every Black Friday making gingerbread houses. We break into teams of two. Each of the neighbor girls (ages 7-11) partners my mother, my sister, or myself and we spend hours decorating houses with candy and icing. My brother is the floating architectural consultant (in the past there have been everything from second story decks to jacuzzis, and there’s always at least one dormer). There have always been themes: the Miami Beach House from last year, the local elementary school the year it closed, and the classic, but always much appreciated, Christmas house. This year the girls got very creative with their themes. Can you guess what they are?
Let me give you some detail shots:
The Phillies World Series Champs house: Complete with Phanatic (he’s on the far left), the WS trophy built from a York Peppermint Patty, a portrait of Cole Hamels, tailgate parking lot with Starburst cars, a diamond, the liberty bell, and a tiny William Penn on the roof.
The Penn Sate Rose Bowl house. Tricked out with a Nittany Lion sculpture, a football field, a marshmallow elf dressed as Joe Paterno (check out those sunglasses and that sweet cane), and on the other side a rose cut from air-heads.
And, last but not least, the Candy Land House. Not one to leave any details out, Nora demanded this house have not only a chocolate swamp, but a lolly-pop forest and accurate surface detailing. Down to teeny- tiny gingerbread men under the eaves.
We had a great time.
world’s ——’ champions
This is the coolest family tradition ever!
Awesome! I just got so nostalgic all of a sudden. (And the phrase “accurate surface detailing” applied to a gingerbread house cracked me up.)
that is amazing. Oh how I wish we’d done something like that when I was that age. so creative and great details, plus the Phils are the best!
It looks so wonderful and a great time was had by all! In the spirit of Christmas, I’ll ignore the World Series stuff and say a job well done! From a BoSox fan.
We make gingerbread houses every year, too!
These are wonderful. What kind of icing do you use?
These are amazing. I’m in awe of gingerbread houses, and haven’t made one in years. Next year, definitely
This year, I have braces on my bottom teeth, and they’d probably crack them 