My Gingerbread Village for Christmas

[Gale]

I love christmastime! as per tradition, tonight i made my gingerbread village. usually i spend a few nights on it, but since christmas is so soon, i had to get it done, and i couldn't before cause i was away at school. (actually, my friends and family thought i wasn't going to do it cause it was so late, but hah!)

so anyway, my sister and brother each decorated a house, and i also baby sat and made some houses for the kids, (which the brought home.) everything else i made myself. not all of it looks like i wanted, but it turned out nice anyway. well, i think. i didn't beat my icing long enough, so it was drippy in places, (you'll see the tree with the red strips that look like they're fallin off...) and when i went to take pictures, i knocked a lamp post down... (i was going to wait and post when i took new pics with it standing, but i can't wait!)

anyway, I'm really proud of it. its the center piece during the holidays. oh, and if you couldn't tell, its santa's workshop. i used peppermints, gum drops, flavored tootsie rolls, m&m's, mike and ikes, and licorice. I also got penut butter cup trees and keebler elved to decorate the town. i did make gingerbread tonight, but i always have horrible luck trying to use it to make villages, so i just used grahm cracker. last year i used gingerbread to make a 2 ft house... and it turned out pretty disasterous.

ANYWAY. I'm excited about it, so I'm talking tons! sorry! hope you guys think its as cool as i do. i spent ages on it. unfortunately, you can't see some of the stuff, so i may take one or two more pics. i made a snowman i really like that's beside the toy factory.

but anyway, on with the show!

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[hypatia]

Its beautiful! It looks great and yummy!

 

[BobG]

Wow. That's flat out awesome!

 

[Moonbear]

Very cool! I was thinking of making gingerbread houses this year, but like you, just didn't have time (I do make the gingerbread from a recipe a friend gave me, though I need to find the recipe before it's permanently lost...I really need to get my recipes organized). I've never tried cutting the gingerbread after baking to see if that's possible, so when I pre-cut the pieces, they never fit together quite right because they "puff up" a bit in the oven, but the icing is very forgiving of those sorts of things. I always have to remember to stock up on canned goods before I undertake a big gingerbread project, or else I run out of wall supports while waiting for the icing to harden.

The only problem I have with making them is that everybody likes to look at it and they're all afraid to be the first to eat it. You have to wait for a kid (or a dad) to start sneaking off gumdrops before anyone's willing to actually break off a piece of gingerbread.

When I was doing my postdoc, I made one for the farm manager. He flat out refused to eat it (he was into crafty type things as Christmas decorations having two daughters in Girl Scouts) and ended up saving it. He puts it out every year (it was a little farm, complete with fences and animal cracker sheep...they don't include sheep in animal crackers, but believe it or not, the lions, when covered in white frosting, look like sheep ).

Though, sometimes I have a hard time finding enough candies for all of them. You go through a lot of gumdrops!

I love your Hershey Kiss lamps! That's a great idea.

 

[mattmns]

"Toyz"? Even Santa seems to be writing things out in slang now-a-days.

The setup is pretty cool Gale

 

[Astronuc]

Very cool, Gale!

My son and some other children from my church make gingerbread houses, which are then auctioned in order to raise money for 'Habitat for Humanity'.

 

[Moonbear]

Very cool, Gale!
My son and some other children from my church make gingerbread houses, which are then auctioned in order to raise money for 'Habitat for Humanity'.

That's a really cool idea!

I used to know of a restaurant where the pastry chef would make a very elaborate gingerbead village every year. They'd display it for a bit, then auction it off and donate the money to a children's hospital (I think...it was something for sick children).

 

[pattylou]

We have that same tradition!

But we're skipping it this year. Your village is beautiful, Gale!

 

[Gale]

"Toyz"? Even Santa seems to be writing things out in slang now-a-days.
The setup is pretty cool Gale

do you know how hard it is to shape licorice?! i tried making an S, and it just wouldn't stay. it didn't want to bend. so i had to break it into three straight pieces, and then it was begging to be a Z instead. I'm sorry...

and yeah moonbear, i usually cut it before hand too, but i guess my icing isn't as forgiving. it always takes so long to beat the icing, i get bored of it. last year my house collapsed on itself, hehe.

we just finished decorating our house today, but i still haven't got the train set up. i can't believe its nearly christmas already!

 

[Math Is Hard]

That's awesome, Gale. Thanks for posting the pics. My sibs and I had a great time making a gingerbread house last year. I have the worst time controlling that royal icing though. Every time I try to work with it I end up covered in it!

 

[Gale]

That's awesome, Gale. Thanks for posting the pics. My sibs and I had a great time making a gingerbread house last year. I have the worst time controlling that royal icing though. Every time I try to work with it I end up covered in it!

we're too alike! i think i ruined a pair of pants yesterdy. well, i ruined a sweatshirt too probably, but i was borrowing that from my sister! you should've seen the kids who came over. the one little girl had icing in herr hair and all over her face. it was sooooo cute!

 

[Math Is Hard]

I think that's the best part - how much the kids (even the big kids) enjoy it. My brother was 19 last year and I started working on the gingerbread decorations without him. He tried to blow me off and go back to his video games. Figured he was too old for that kind of stuff now. I feigned an emergency - ooh! help! - the house is collapsing! You have to help me hold it up while I stick on more icing! ...heh heh heh That's all it took. He was hooked. He ended up working on it with us for about 5 hours.