Faux Gingerbread Houses

My kids love to decorate gingerbread houses, but they really don't like gingerbread.  They will surely eat the candy decorations off of their houses, but the gingerbread usually ends up going to waste.  So, last year, I decided to make their "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers.  We did it again this year, and it was another big hit! 

I cut the graham crackers to the shapes I needed by using a serrated knife.  By using a sawing motion, you can cut the graham crackers without breaking them.  I whipped up some royal icing and built our tiny graham cracker houses.

Then I pulled out all of candy decorations.  This is a great way to use up leftover Halloween candy if you have any.  I love to decorate holiday cookies and cakes, so we always have a ton of candy decorations.

I put some royal icing in a baggie, snipped a corner, and put the kids to work! 

We also made Christmas trees this year by spreading green frosting on a pointed ice cream cone and adding small candies.

This kept the kids busy for a good part of the day!  And they turned out really cute!