Aside from Hallmark movies and a fabulous excuse to go shopping, one of my favorite things about the holidays are the parties! (shocking, I know LOL). Gingerbread decorating parties are such a fun event to host for kids (and grownups!) and I think it makes a great annual tradition.
For this party there were two things that made huge impacts - the fringe backdrop and the centerpiece made out of paper gingerbread houses.
My original idea was to create a huge candy balloon garland, but after I found this backdrop I opted to use that instead and stick our candy on the ground. This worked out great anyway since kids like to touch all the things ;) We paired ordinary balloons wrapped in cellophane with these candy balloons I found on Amazon. This was also the first time that I got to try a new hack with Mylar balloons. Instead of inflating them with helium, we blew them up with air through a straw. This way they didn’t float. It was super easy and worked out perfectly.
Another DIY we did for this party was making our own party crackers. This was a super fun, easy, and cheap way to create party favors that doubled as place settings. You can see how we made them here.
Although we made ours with Christmas themed wrapping and wording, you could easily use other colors and spell out your guest’s names instead.
To go with our little gingerbread village, we included little gingerbread people and trees that we glued onto little blocks to prop them up. Although I originally designed these for decoration, they ended up being a fun little toy for the kids to play with!
This year we opted to try out graham cracker ‘gingerbread’ houses for the kids. They turned out great - I’m actually thinking of trying it again with something more elaborate. I’ll let you know how it goes!
Here are a few tips I have for the decorating:
★ Unless you are planning on eating your house, feel free to hot glue that thing together. I won’t tell if you won’t tell ;) Since it bonds almost immediately, it makes it easier to decorate without having it fall apart.
★ Use small trays like we did below (we lined ours with the patterned paper from the party set). This will help contain the mess a bit and to stop runaway sprinkles.
There were two reasons I kept the roof part of the gingerbread houses open . First so that you can easily place a flame less candle inside, and secondly so that you can use them as gift boxes!
Put together, these boxes are the perfect size for party favors or Christmas gifts. You could fill one with hot chocolate and marshmallows, a small stuffed animal, or more!
I know this party really put us in the holiday spirit - how about you?!
SHOP THE PARTY
