Christmas | Hosting a Gingerbread House Decorating Party

Hosting a Gingerbread House Decorating Party was not part of my Christmas Agenda this year (I don’t actually have one, BELIEVE ME!).  But, Someone shared a Pinterest Perfect Pin of such a party on Pop Roc Parties super special Facebook Group and many of us oohed and ahhhed …………………. and I ended up saying “I’ll host it!  No worries, leave it in my capable hands”.

Now that statement is hilarious and couldn’t actually be any further from the truth.  I’m a really, really bad hostess, honestly, there was plenty of wine at the party but the only food served was what the guests brought themselves!

But, I was pretty pumped on the whole Gingerbread House concept so called in the big guns to help make the morning a success.

Penny from Little Housewife took one for the team and made the most beautiful Gingerbread House pieces for us to assemble and Gingerbread men for Ethan to decorate (both my kids were there as Dave was out of town on business), as well as whipping up her fail-safe icing to stick everything together on the day.  You can find the recipe for her Gingerbread here.

Spotlight was my natural go-to for baking supplies and Christmas decor for this event.  I previewed their gorgeous Christmas range earlier in the year and haven’t stopped thinking about it since!  When I first hit the Albany store for supplies I was completely overwhelmed but found that once I had decided on a colour scheme – white and silver with red accents –  everything seemed to fall into place – or into my basket lol.

Party Decor

Considering I only had a few rudimentary ideas floating around at the outset, I’m so happy with how the table turned out.

Key pieces were definitely the foil balloons spelling XMAS.  I has purchased the huge helium numbers before but wasn’t aware that they also came in a 30cm size that you can air fill.  The best part?  They have tabs with holes pre-punched ready to hang!  Seven days later and our gorgeous foil garland is still looking amaze.  RRP $3.99 ea.

Each place setting comprised;

• Bouclair Home Snowy Invite PVC Placemat RRP$5.99 
• Silver cakeboard dressed up with some super-cute RRP$4.99
• Paper bow-toppers RRP$3.00
• Tis the Season Mug RRP$11.99
• Snowy Invite Nutcracker 18cm  – Check in store, + Kaiser Kraft Silver Bells Tag Pack RRP$6.99

 

Centrepiece 

• Joy Marquee Light RRP$34.99
• Ceramic Tree RRP$19.99
• Paper Mache Reindeer RRP$7.99
• Snowy Invite Glitter Reindeer – Check in store
• Snowy Invite Nutcracker 35cm  – Check in store
• Red Copenhagen Cement Candle -Check in Store

 

Decorating 101

It’s a fact that you can’t decorate Gingerbread Houses without pretty, pretty candy.  Sweet Scoop are our family’s favourite; a range of delicious, traditional lollies that are available to Pick ‘N Mix at selected PAK ‘n SAVE and New World stores nationwide.  To decorate our houses we used; Fairy Mushrooms, Licorice Mix, Sour Fruit Dots, Rosie Apples, Tutti Fruitti Belts, Love Hearts, Blue Mouth Painters, Raspberry Sours, Fizzy Bricks, Tangy Sticks, Spin Tops and Cupid Hearts.  

Because I have no idea what I’m doing, I was planning on buying an icing bag and attachments for each guest.  Thankfully I called Penny whilst I was in Spotlight and she directed me to the Party department which is where you find all of the icing equipment.  One box of Wilton Disposable Piping Bags and we were all set!  Cutting off the end on an angle is perfect for decorating these little houses.  I picked up quite a range of sparkles, sprinkles, Frozen-coloured snowflakes, and gel pens from Spotlight and Julie from Pop Roc supplied the Christmas Pearl Sprinkles (red, white & green) plus the cutest little reindeer and tree topper figurines.

I also grabbed these very cute 3d Christmas Cookie Cutters which were perfect for cutting out fondant shapes to add a little extra dimension to our decorating.

The Finishing Touches

This is where I let Julie from Pop roc Parties go crazy!  Decorating the table for an event like this is totally her forte and she had no end of amazing party products to flesh out my concept and make it look ‘finished’.  I’ll include a full ‘Shop the Look’ links section at the end for you.

You can’t host a Christmas party without crackers and these Jolly & Joy Poinsettia Bon Bons were a gorgeous addition to the table.  I’d never considered gold serving-ware before but how amazing do the berries look on that gold hexagon plate????  I love it, the subtle pop of metallic adds a little luxe feeling to the nibbles table.

With SO much that needed to be on the table Julie was keen to create some height.  I had the decorating sprinkles on a cakestand some upended wooden crates worked well to get the decorations out of the way when it was time to get down to the ‘hard work’ of decorating our beautiful little houses.  Mason jars were used to keep our icing bags upright and ready to go and tying the bags off with festive ribbon from Spotlight just added to the cohesive theme.

Not going to lie.  It was a crazy, hectic morning due to the fact that everyone pitched in and pulled the party together in situ!  But it was so much fun and the finished Gingerbread Houses looked amazing!  I cannot believe I had the foresight to pick up a large roll of cellophane from Spotlight (so not like me to think ahead!), but I did and it was perfect for wrapping up the finished products to ensure they made it home safely to the little people who were eagerly awaiting them!

Thank you so much to the beautiful ladies who came and enjoyed the First Annual Best Nest Gingerbread House Decorating Party!  Aimee from My Beloved Style, Penny from Little Housewife, Megan from Thread and Julie from Pop Roc Parties.

Also a huge thank you to Spotlight, Sweet Scoop and Pop Roc Parties for your generous contributions to this event xx

Shop the Look from Pop Roc Parties

• Chevron Table Runner $19.95
• Christmas Tissue Tassel Garland $10
• Mason Ball Heritage Green Pint Jars $9.95
• Medium Quilted Crystal Jelly Jars – Hire
• Mini Wooden Scoops $3.50
• White Cupcake Cups $5
• Paper straws
• Whitewash Wooden Crate $16.50
• Reindeer Topper $1.40
• Pine Tree Topper $1.00
• Season’s Greetings Platter $27.95

 

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