Ideas for a Gingerbread House Party

This past weekend, my daughter had a few friends over for a Gingerbread House Decorating Party.  Everyone had a lot of fun decorating  their gingerbread houses, and making gingerbread crafts.  Almost all of our Christmas Party Supplies came from  Oriental Trading. As a Brand Ambassador for the Oriental Trading, I was sent these supplies to use at our party, and share them with you. I truly love their products, and I have been a long time customer before I even started blogging. (check out some of my childrens' parties featured on the blog from years ago).  

*Disclosure this post contains affiliate links 

To save money we used a mini village gingerbread kit instead of buying a large house for each guest.  The smaller houses were a perfect size, and not too overwhelming to make. 

One of the favorite crafts at the party were these gingerbread boxes that come in a kit of 12. Each box came with a page of foam stickers, and as you can see, had more than enough stickers that you can be very creative.  

I found this awesome gingerbread baking pan at my local Salvation Army earlier this year.  I decided to try it out for the first time with a gingerbread dough mix.  You will see how they turned out later in this post.  

Our kitchen table looked like a sweet shop explosion. At each table setting we had a small house, and the gingerbread crafts that we had already  put together. Since the kit only came with one bag of icing, I made a few small batches of Royal Icing and placed them in plastic baggies around the table. 

We had a lot of goodies to use on the houses. Most of the candy came from the Dollar Tree.  The gingerbread marshmallows were found at Meijer.   I placed all of the goodies in cupcake pans to keep them contained, and within arms reach to everyone.  A great place to buy cupcake pans so each child can have their own individual pan is at the Dollar Tree.  

The gingerbread goodies boxes were easy to put together,  and the perfect size for the guests to take home all of their goodies at the end of the night 

Here are just some of the crafts and goodies that the guests made and took home.  We used some of the leftover stickers from the Gingerbread Boxes and used them on foam gingerbread cut outs.  The papier-mache gingerbread houses can be found on the Oriental Trading Site as DIY House Shaped Boxes. (update- they are not currently available, but a wooden gingerbread house kit is) We painted them brown and then decorated. These house shaped boxes can be used for many different crafts, not just gingerbread houses.  The guests were also given a candy cane, and a special gingerbread sucker from Oriental Trading 

Here are how the cookies turned out with the Gingerbread Baking Sheet.  I placed them on the table so they could also be decorated (and eaten!) They turned out perfectly.  I had more dough left over that can be used a later time. 

I think  these plates are so adorable.  There were also on the table to place the individual cookies on while decorating.  

I think this gingerbread cookie looks good enough to eat! 

We have a small dining area, but it was decorated in full theme for the party.  The gingerbread wooden cut out ornaments came unpainted from Oriental Trading.  I had a lot of fun painting them, and bringing them to life.  ( you may see them in another post  later this week) 

Here is a close up of one of the ornaments. 

Another option if you would like thinker gingerbread men are these papier-mache ornaments

I adore this sweet Gingerbread Boy Pinata. We did not have the heart to break him.  I think we will use him as a decoration for awhile.  He is from Oriental Trading. (update- unfortunately he is not currently available) 

I painted the Gingerbread Face using a gold charger from the Dollar Tree.  I have had the stuffed gingerbread man for years.  I think it might have even belonged to one of my kids when they were little. 

The gingerbread garland matched the decor perfectly. 

Here are the finished houses that the guests were able to take home.  To make them more portable, they were on small foiled covered cardboard, or plastic plates. 

These adorable gingerbread rubber duckies were too good to pass up 

In addition to all of the goodies show earlier in the post, each guest also got a gingerbread rubber duckie, and a gingerbread cookie in a cookie take home box.  

It was a great night, and a great party! 

Here are a few more items you might be interested in for your gingerbread party. 

gingerbread village stand ups

gingerbread house door cover

color your own gingerbread playhouse

gingerbread party tablecloth

gingerbread nativity craft kit