Seasons > Autumn > Home Decorations > Thanksgiving candy cups, nut cups, and Centerpieces > How to Make a Pilgrim House
Cut down the four corners of 2 cracker or cereal boxes. How far down you cut the corners determines how steep the pitch of the roof is. The pitch of the pilgrim houses was quite steep. Make both boxes the same as possible. (these are different to demonstrate the difference in the angle of the roof) Fold the front and back corners in to form the triangle at the top and tape the sides to it to re-enforce the roof.
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How to make a Pilgrim cottage
Log cabins were not introduced to America until the 1800’s! So the cottages at Plymouth village were clapboard. Thank goodness for this project, anyway, since logs would be really hard to replicate!!
Tape the two house boxes together. Cut a chimney out of the end of a spaghetti box and tape to the roof of the house. Cut a roof out of a cereal box. Turn the colored side up, since you will be covering the roof with a “thatched” roof. That way the eaves won’t show the frosted flakes logo!
Fold gray paper in accordion folds for clapboard siding. I used 2 letter sized sheets on the front and back, and one on each side. It all depends on how many folds and how deep they are as for how many sheets it will take. Cut a door out of the rest of the cereal box and glue to the front. (Of course, children will think it is way cooler if you actually cut a door that can be opened! If you use a brad for a door nob, you can even make the door really latch, or for even more authenticity, rig a latch string!)
Make a thatched roof in the same way, but make each fold deeper. Cut the folded edge into strips. Layer these on the roof. (You could use pine needles to make it more authentic looking, but that just seems like too much work!!)
