DIY Mini Gingerbread House Decorating Station

A gingerbread house station is the holiday party activity that does everything at once: it’s the craft, the snack, the photo moment and the favor. The version that works with real children skips the assembly entirely — you build (or buy) the houses in advance and the party is purely decorating. Here’s how to set it up so it stays pretty for the whole forty minutes.

What you'll need

• Mini gingerbread house kits (one per child), or graham crackers glued into houses the night before
• Royal icing — stiff enough to hold a gumdrop on a roof
• Small piping bags, one per child, fitted with a small round tip and closed with a clip
• Candy in cups: mini M&M’s, gumdrops, peppermints, pretzel sticks, mini marshmallows, sprinkles — a 12-cup muffin tin works perfectly as a candy tray
• A small cake board or sturdy paper plate under each house
• Cardstock flags on toothpicks with each child’s name
• A kraft paper table cover you can roll up at the end
• Clear cellophane bags and ribbon for the ride home

Step 1: Build the houses the night before

Assemble every house with royal icing and let them dry overnight on their boards. Fresh icing can’t hold a wall and a child at the same time. If you’re using graham crackers, a small milk carton inside as a frame makes them indestructible.

Step 2: Set one place, twelve times

Each seat gets the same kit: house on its board, a piping bag, a small cup of mixed candy and a name flag already planted in the roof. When every place looks identical, children settle instantly — there’s nothing to compare or grab.

Step 3: Put the shared candy in the middle

The muffin-tin tray of extra candy goes at the center of the table, at kid height and within reach. Kids trade and top up themselves, which keeps them at the table instead of running to a grown-up.

Step 4: Show one technique, then step back

Demonstrate one thing — a line of icing along the roof edge, then press candies into it — and let them go. The houses will not look like the box. That is what makes them worth keeping.

Step 5: Bag them at the table

Before anyone stands up, slide each house (still on its board) into a cellophane bag and tie it with ribbon and the name flag. Houses that are bagged at the table make it home; houses that are carried do not.

Our styling note

Gingerbread is brown and candy is loud, so keep everything else quiet: white or cream chairs, a white table, a plain kraft runner. One color of ribbon on every bag (red, forest green or pale blue) ties the whole table together in photos. And plan for a wipe-down — a rental table with a hard, easy-clean top earns its keep on this one.

Styling a whole winter party? Start with our holiday & winter kids’ party ideas and finish the table with the new DIY hot cocoa bar.