GINGERBREAD house decorating - How to set-up for an easy and fun party - Graham cracker houses, icing, & candy

I decided to do this very last minute (the day before the party) and it was surprisingly easy to pull together.  

The houses are made out of graham crackers and can be made in advance (for me the night before) and same for the icing. 

TUTORIAL for icing and houses HERE

The day of the party I worked and off only an hour before the party started. I had the table decorated and cups set so the only thing to do when I got home was fill the cups with goodies, mix a batch of icing and put the hot chocolate in the crockpot. Easy! Ummm.... okay, I was stressing about time {{panic attack}} but it all worked out.

The kids had a blast!

I did have a little help that day with the cardboard covered with wrapping paper. My hubby and kids did that while I was at work. I picked a thick, plastic feeling wrapping paper. Maybe a foil. I didn't want the icing making it look greasy. Plus it was glittery too! :)

I think cellophane wrapping would work too.

Goodies: marshmallow peeps (trees and snowman,) shredded mini wheat, candy canes, Christmas candy corns, Hersey hugs and kisses, gum drops, mini M&M's, marshmallows, waffle pretzels, snowman candy, Christmas chocolate chips, peanut butter cups, cheerios, mini M&M's, Santa shaped chocolate and peppermints. I bought teddy grahams but forgot to set them out. 

Any other ideas I forgot?

Love this one! Santa's sleigh crashing into the house. 

Some of the houses

We also had a HOT CHOCOLATE BAR!!!! Huge hit! I made the hot chocolate the night before (while putting together gingerbread houses) and put it back in the crockpot when I got home to warm up.

Here is an AWESOME Hot Chocolate Recipe 

Decorating cookies??? 

PERFECT recipe for cookie royal icing HERE

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Chocolate SPOONS & HOT CHOCOLATE BAR - free downloadable! IDEAS!

These are great for coffee or hot chocolate! 

This year we did a hot chocolate bar for the teachers lounge and

 also at our GINGERBREAD DECORATING PARTY

Free downloadable tag below

Turned out so cute!

Spoons, Wilton treat bags (same as marshmallow bags HERE) and ribbon.

I used wooden utensils to hold up the end of the spoons and they worked out to be the exact height needed. You could use a book or hand towel rolled up.

Melted chocolate candy melts (Same as HERE) and put in a ziplock and clipped the corner

SQUEEZE! 

Sprinkles

Then let them dry. It really doesn't take long. I wouldn't recommend putting them in the refrigerator because they will get sticky. Learned that the hard way :/

Used Wilton bags (same as marshmallow bags HERE)

Ribbon and TA-DAAAA!!!

These were some of the supplies I used for the teacher Hot Chocolate Bar

This was easy and something to show our appreciation! Since my son is in student council I always put all our treats from the whole group. The little tag says "Whisk and Serve" From: Student Council

Here is an AWESOME hot chocolate recipe

FREE DOWNLOADABLE / PRINTABLE

It's sized as a 5x7 photo that you can send to your local 1hr photo lab or print at home. 

Click HERE to download 5X7 HOT CHOCOLATE BAR tag for FREE

(then right click and save)

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