Storybook Gingerbread House for a New Holiday Tradition

I’m excited to share another children’s story and craft combo with you. The craft is a gingerbread house made with popsicle sticks and decorated with non-food items from the craft cabinet. 

Yes, you can leave it up the entire holiday season. You can even save it to put up year after year.

And, to make the craft more meaningful, I’ve found a sweet picture book to go with it.

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Gingerbread Mouse {affiliate} by Katy Bratun is about a mouse who looks for a new home, and for a while lives in a gingerbread house. It’s a cute Christmas story that shows persistence and captures the imagination. 

It will also help give your child some context when making a gingerbread house. You can read the story before you start your craft. 

Then, while the paint and glue dries, you can read the story again.  Let your child tell you what new details he or she noticed the second time. Look closely together at the illustrations of the gingerbread house. Have fun discussing what it would be like living in a candy house!

You can get creative with how you decorate your gingerbread house. Depending on the age and inclination of your kid, you may want to allow him to brainstorm with you. For younger children, it’s probably better to just put a few choices out.

I’ll share what I used, plus give you instructions and a few tips.

Materials

Gingerbread House

• 18 Popsicle sticks
• Glue
• Brown acrylic paint
• White acrylic paint
• Paintbrush
• Smock or paint shirt for each child

Embellishments I used

• Craft jewels
• Assorted beads
• Peppermint mini-erasers (I found mine at Dollar Tree)
• Ribbon scraps
• Edge of a paper doily
• Pom poms
• Baker’s twine
• Unrolled cotton ball

 You also could use

• Pipe cleaners
• Tissue paper
• Glitter (if you dare!)
• Buttons
• Craft foam
• Fabric scraps
• Stickers
• And more! 

Instructions

1.  Lay out the popsicle sticks as shown below. For the roof, I discovered that I could cut popsicle sticks with cheap regular adult scissors. Pieces may go flying, so be careful.

Back

Front

2. Glue the sticks together, and let dry overnight

3. Paint the whole front of the house brown. Let dry. Then paint white accents. I drew the door on in pencil, then painted it in. Let dry. Acrylic paint dries pretty quickly unless your child lays it on too thickly. Be patient.

4. Glue on embellishments. If your child has trouble controlling the glue bottle, use a paint brush or a cotton swab to apply the glue.

My 6-year olds are super-excited to make their own craft stick gingerbread houses. I think it will be one of the first few activities we do once we start our Advent calendar. I have a feeling I’ll be pulling out their sweet creations every year. I’d love to line several up across my mantel.

I am linking this post up with a very special series called the 12 Days of Christmas. A huge group of bloggers are sharing Christmas ideas for kids. Be sure to click on the photo-link below and check them out.