Homemade Holiday: Cardboard Gingerbread House

A long-lasting, sweet-free twist on making a gingerbread house!

Materials

• Cardboard box (we used a floral box and small shipping boxes)
• Additional cardboard for the roof
• Glue gun (to be used by an adult)
• Craft glue
• Craft knife (to be used by an adult)
• Scissors
• Craft tray
• Smock

These ideas are suggestions of embellishments, but use whatever materials you may have:

• Rick rack
• Ribbon
• Sequins
• Jewels
• Beads
• Wood shapes
• Tissue paper

Directions

Candy Decorations

• Put your wood shapes into your craft tray, don your smock and paint them.  Allow them to dry overnight.  Glue folds of tissue paper at each end to make them appear like candies for your house.

Constructing Your House

• Have an adult cut out two sides to your roof (as seen in the photograph, this looks like a triangle on top of a small rectangle and would be slightly less than the width of 2 of the sides of the box).  Glue gun this into the inside ends of your house.

• Glue a flat rectangular piece onto these two pieces to form the peak of your roof.  We suggest scoring the one side of the cardboard with the craft knife so that it folds more easily.  Trim the edges of your roof.

• Have an adult cut out any doors or windows that you may like.

• With your craft glue and selected materials, decorate your gingerbread house.

• Allow it to dry overnight.

• Wouldn’t it be fun to hide a present under this?  Or create a little town, making a different house or building each year.

Purpose

• Creating a three dimensional structure
• Working together

Safety Notes

• It is recommended that an adult use the craft knife and the glue gun.  Be sure to store these items out of the reach of small children.
• Beads and other small objects can be choking hazards.  Keep them our of reach from children ages 0-3 or those that tend to put things in their mouths.
• Be sure to wear a smock and use a craft tray to protect surfaces and clothing.
• String like materials such as rick rack can be a strangulation hazard and therefore are not for play and should be used with adult supervision.