Seasons > Christmas > Decorations for the home > Cracker Box Gingerbread House

This Gingerbread house started out as 2 cracker boxes. Cut the 4 corners of each box about a third or half of the way down. If you don’t cut down far enough, the roof will not have as steep a pitch. Next fold the front and back of the each cracker box into a triangle--just fold the right and left corners down. Fold the sides against the peak of the roof and tape down. Tape or glue the 2 boxes together. Cover the boxes with brown paper bags. Glue the house to the top of a gift box.

Make the chimney by gluing white paper around a spaghetti box. Glue wrapping paper around the top. Glue the chimney to the back of the house. Glue on foam or felt shapes to look like candy garnishes. Put cotton or kleenex in the top for smoke. Tear off pieces of green tissue paper, wad them into balls to form the bushes. Glue them all around the house, but leave a space for the front door.

Make “lollipop” flowers by layering different colors of foam or felt on top of each other, glue them to toothpicks, then glue the toothpicks behind the “bushes.” Make the candy cane gazebo by wrapping some cardboard around a can and tape or glue shut to form a tube. Glue wrapping paper to this tube. Cut a half circle from foam and glue it to the top for a roof. Decorate with more foam or felt shapes.

Make a “tile” roof by cutting toilet paper or paper towel tubes. Start from the bottom edge of the roof, and keep gluing rows of tiles to the roof. After both sides have been covered, glue “tiles” along the ridge. A glue gun is probably the easies way to glue these.

Make a snowman by gluing 3 pompoms together, then fasten it to the box. Add felt details for the scarf, hat, and nose. A wire poked through the middle section makes “branch” arms. Glue on black seed beads for eyes.

Cut  a piece of cardboard for the roof and glue it in place.

Cut a door out of foam or paper and glue in place. Wrap striped wrapping paper around 2 straws and tape them in place. Cut the covered straws to fit around the door and glue in place. If you don’t have striped paper, you can make your own by drawing lines on white paper with a red marker. These are fairly small pieces of paper, so do measure it before you draw, or you might spend lots of time drawing lots of lines, then only use a bit of it. Cut white paper or foam for under the eaves, and add foam or felt circles to look like candy decorations. Make a wreath with a ring of chenille wire. If it looks too dinky, wind there rest of the chenille wire around the wreath--through the hole, and around the outside, then back through the hole until the whole wreath is thicker. Another option is to wrap the chenille wire around a plastic ring that is left under bottle caps, such as milk or coke. Cut a bow out of red foam and glue the wreath and bow to the door.