Make an EASY, foolproof graham cracker gingerbread house! Learn how to cut, glue, and create the cutest inexpensive gingerbread houses made from graham crackers.
I remember making a gingerbread house out of graham crackers in my Girl Scout troop growing up.
I painstakingly attached all the pieces together with frosting, then added lots of colorful candy to decorate my masterpiece.
It was so frustrating when the frosting wouldn’t hold my Christmas creation together and it all fell apart into a heap of sugary sweet candy rubble!
Back when I was an elementary school teacher, this happened every year.
So many sad second graders whose houses collapsed…
One year , however, we had an amazing room mom one year who taught me a cool trick that’s stuck with me.
She volunteered to make about 30 graham cracker gingerbread houses for each student in our class.
At first, I thought she was crazy!
However, she told me her secret weapon that I thought was absolutely BRILLIANT… a glue gun.
She would prep all of the gingerbread houses ahead of time with a glue gun, then the kids could focus on the fun part- decorating!
Another favorite kid activity is our Easy DIY Fake Snow that stays cold and takes just two ingredients!
Why Make a Graham Cracker Gingerbread House?
There are many advantages to making a gingerbread house out of graham crackers instead of the traditional way-
- You don’t waste time in the kitchen baking your own gingerbread from scratch
- If you have multiple kids like me who want to make their own house, this method will save you money (instead of buying each child a big kit)
- These houses actually hold up and won’t fall apart… no sad crying kids!
- Save a LOT of time because you and the kids don’t have to wait for frosting to set up to get started creating
Want more easy Christmas crafts? Try our 5-minute snowman ornaments, our darling sock snowman, and our easy candy sleigh!
This post contains Amazon affiliate links, which means I make a small percentage of any purchase made at no extra cost to you.
Ingredients You’ll Need
Graham crackers
We always use Honey Maid graham crackers. They’re the best!
You’ll need 5 full graham crackers per house.
Glue gun
If you want to assemble these ahead of time easily or right on the spot, a hot glue gun is the way to go!
The finished houses are very strong and sturdy, and I’ve yet to have one fall apart over many years.
Most kids don’t eat the graham cracker part of the house, but if you’re worried about a child eating any glued portions then you can also use royal icing to assemble the house.
Frosting
To attach the candy to the graham cracker gingerbread house, you’ll need frosting.
You can either use store-bought frosting from a can (cake frosting), cookie icing (easy to use squeeze bottle), or make a batch of royal icing from a mix or from scratch using powdered sugar, egg whites or meringue powder, and water or vanilla.
Either option works great!
I use the canned frosting because it works perfectly, the kids can use a plastic knife or spoon to add the frosting to their candy, and I don’t have to make it.
Candy and treats
To make your gingerbread houses colorful and fun, you need a variety of candy and treats!
Here are some of our favorite candies-
- mini candy canes
- peppermint candies
- sprinkles
- mini marshmallows
- gumdrops
- Lifesavers
- M&Ms, Skittles, and other small candies
- candy wafers
- wafer cookies
- pretzels
- coconut flakes or confectioner’s sugar (for snow)
- clear crystal sprinkles- looks like ice and made a nice shimmer on the roofs
Cute icing decorations
These cute decorations are made from royal icing and make your finished gingerbread houses like pro without a lot of effort!
- icing snowmen
- icing Christmas trees, wreaths, and garlands
- icing Santa, reindeer, presents, and Santa’s toy bag
- icing door, windows, and candy canes
Serrated knife
A serrated knife is pretty crucial for cutting the graham crackers.
You’ll waste a lot of graham crackers if you use a normal knife (ask me how I know), because they tend to break the crackers no matter how gently you cut because it puts too much pressure on the crackers.
A serrated knife cuts so gently and smoothly and gives you nice clean edges.
A home base
You will need some kind of base to put your house on.
You could use:
- a cardboard cake circle (like we used- a few dollars for a set at Walmart, Michaels, or Joann)
- a piece of cardboard
- a paper plate
- a cutting board
EASY Graham Cracker Gingerbread House
Making an easy graham cracker gingerbread house is simple. I’ll show you how!
Graham Cracker Gingerbread House How To VIDEO
I made a video below to show you how easy these are to make!
Cut the Graham Crackers
First you’ll need to cut the graham crackers into the shapes for make the house.
To cut the graham cracker pieces, you will use the serrated knife and use a gentle sawing motion to lightly cut.
This should cut the crackers perfectly if you do it lightly and gently.
You’re basically scoring the crackers. You can keep scoring all the way until the cracker is completely cut, or gently break the crackers along the score line.
Helpful Tip- There will be lots of crumbs from the cutting and it can make a little mess, so you might want to cover the counter or cut on a cutting board or paper plate for easy clean up!
Start with 5 full rectangular crackers.
Cracker #1-
Cut the cracker in half on the perforated line.
Cracker #2 and #3-
Starting on the the middle perforation line on one side, cut at an angle that goes to the middle of the cracker (see above photo).
Repeat for the other side to make a triangle shape.
Cut this exact same shape for cracker #3.
Cracker #4 and #5-
Cut a straight aline across the cracker 3/4 of the way up.
You’re basically cutting off half of one of the sides of the cracker.
Repeat this same cut for cracker #5.
Assemble the Gingerbread House
House Base-
Now it’s time to put all the pieces together.
Pick up one of the half pieces and one of the pieces with the triangle at the top.
Use your glue gun or royal icing to attach the two piece together at a 45 degree angle.
Now attach the other half piece to the triangular piece to make the second side of the house.
Attach the second triangular piece to the two side pieces to finish the base of the house.
Roof-
To make the roof, attach the two last pieces to the top of the house.
Press the two crackers together gently to make sure there isn’t a gap in the center of the roof.
Voila! Now you have a simple graham cracker house that’s ready to decorate!
Graham Cracker Gingerbread House Ideas
Now for the fun part… decorating!
This is where you let your inner child and imagination go wild.
You could even throw a gingerbread house making party like we did!
Want to make a pink pastel house with pink wafer cookie shingles like I did? Go for it!
Or a creative gingerbread house car like my daughter, complete with an icy “rocky road” made from white rock candy? Why not?
One of our favorite things we used to decorate our houses were cute icing figures I found at Walmart.
You can see the pink wreath, pink trees and poinsettias, cute snowmen with pink earmuffs and blue hats, a gingerbread man, green icing trees, and white and blue snowflakes.
These were sooo cute and we didn’t have to spend time making them!
We just opened the package and attached them to our houses or coconut snow-covered yards… easy peasy.
I hope I’ve inspired you to make your own graham cracker gingerbread house.
Have you seen all our helpful FREE Elf printables?
- Elf Arrival Letter Printable
- 24 Printable Elf Notes (One for each day in December!)
- Elf Bad Behavior Letter
- Elf Adoption Certificate
- 50 BEST Elf Clothes
- 50 BEST Elf Accessories (like elf-sized food and drinks!)
- Elf Goodbye Letter
Happy creating!
Leave a Reply