For the last two years, my daughter has invited 3-4 friends and their moms over for a Saturday morning Gingerbread House Decorating Party!
It’s such a special time for the moms and daughters to remove themselves from the chaos of their own homes during the holiday season. I only have 2 kids, and even I have trouble sometimes getting special time with only 1 child. This helps us breathe for an hour or two, grab some silly laughs together and with our friends, and enjoy a yummy breakfast!
I always buy the houses after a holiday on clearance. I say “a” holiday because it doesn’t necessarily have to be after Christmas! The houses in the above picture were from a Halloween village kit I bought (shh! we covered the orange icing with white when the girls decorated!). I assemble the houses a couple days ahead of time so they’ve got plenty of time to dry and get themselves all sturdy. Each girl gets their own board and this year they got 2 houses to decorate.
I grab candy on clearance whenever I can plus use the candy that comes with the houses. Go ahead and grab your candy after Christmas and save it a full year until the next party. It doesn’t matter if it gets stale, because you’re just decorating the house with it, not eating it!
And then we enjoy breakfast together! Just chatting, catching up and listening to the girls giggle!
I also buy Santa hats on clearance and put one on the backs of the chairs where the girls should sit. This helps ensure that each girl sits beside her mommy and not all bunched up together like little girls have a tendency to do!
Our menu varies slightly, but we’ve always had some type of egg casserole and a french toast casserole. You can find both recipes in this old post!
This spread was from last year when she decided she wanted fruit and yogurt parfaits. Super easy for me! We just put out a large bowl of vanilla yogurt, sliced peaches and granola.
These royal icing decorations were bought the year before as well. I think they were about a quarter for the whole pack! I just popped them on some fresh cupcakes from my bakery.
My daughter (and anybody who arrives slightly early!) assembles these little powdered donut snowmen with candy corn and mini chocolate chips.
And I just have to share my Christmas glasses! My uncle got me a set of these with about 4 different designs a couple years ago and I get SO excited every year to use them again!
Last year, I made little favor bags for them to take home with their gingerbread houses too. Yeppers, all bought on clearance the year before. I think each bag plus the goodies inside cost me about 50 cents total. Planning ahead is fan-freakin-tastic!
