In 1998 I started letting all the daycare kids make their own little gingerbread houses to decorate and take home. We've made them every year since then. Except for last year.
Unfortunately they're not made out of gingerbread. The house itself is made out of graham crackers. Most years I have to make about 20 houses, so the graham crackers work pretty well (when I can find a box that doesn't have a lot of the crackers broken in half). I always end up buying 2 or 3 extra boxes of crackers, just in case.
If I made them out of gingerbread, I'd have to start making them in October, lol.
Meijer's has a bulk food section with lots of candies to choose from. I buy spice drops, red hots, licorice, miniature candy canes, smarties, Mike & Ike's, snaps, m&m's, suckers, jelly beans, skittles, spearmint leaves, orange slices, gummy bears, circus peanuts, gum balls, runts and whatever else looks like it might make a fun decoration. One year I bought a box of the pointed ice cream cones to use for pine trees. I thought about buying some pink cotton candy to stuff inside the house to make it look like it's insulated (not really).
The houses are pretty small. They're the length of a full graham cracker and the width of 1/2 of a graham cracker. I build each house on a paper plate starting with some of the frosting to help it stick to the plate.
I have to make a lot of them, not only for the daycare kids, but 6 of the neighbor boys come over and a few of the kids who used to come here for daycare stop by. Some of the kids are done decorating in a 1/2 hour and the older ones will sometimes spend over an hour on theirs.
When we make them next week I'll post some pictures.
I'd like to get a kit with a big g.b. house for my grand kids to decorate and keep here. That would be fun.
At Michael's there's a display with all the products made by Wilton to make gingerbread houses from scratch. They have cookie cutters and pans and everything you need.
Barb
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I wont even tell you what the oldest did to a gingerbread man.... at least she didn't leave that. 
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