How To Have A Gingerbread Party

First, buy everything gingerbread you can get your hands on.  Spend your workouts thinking of gingerbread man rhymes, planning gingerbread activities, and making a guest list in your head.  When you sleep, dream about gingerbread men.  I mean cookies people, get your minds out of the gutter.  Try some of the activities out on your kindergarten class.  If they believe their cookies jumped out of the oven so whole heartedly that they can smell the gingerbread in the hallway, you’re onto something.  Once you’ve collected all the materials it’s time to get busy.

The day before you will want to get dressed up and go to see “Wicked” with your sister and daughter. 

Okay, that has nothing to do with the party, but it happened this weekend and it was amazing and I had to include it. 

When you get home from the show, invite random people over to eat pot roast and help assemble houses and wrap gifts for the party.  Anne and Rick will of course come and bring the first gifts of the holiday(this step is optional depending on if you know an Anne and Rick and do indeed like them).

  

After dinner is cleaned up you will need to bake a giant gingerbread man.

It might not go well the first time.

In this case you will need to bake another one.  While you are doing that have someone else put together 10 gingerbread houses(because that’s a crappy job).

This may go smoother if you a) Do it before the box of wine comes out b) Keep your Anne away from it.  Woman has a lot of wonderful talents but none of them lie in the kitchen. 

Let Uncle Brian love up the toddler.  Even if he’s wearing a headband.

Finally, think up a sweet saying and write it in the books to be given out at the party!

  

On the day of the party, set up and wait for sweet little girls to fill your house.

It may be difficult for the 3 year old to wait.  The candy is oh so tempting.  This young child is staring at, poking at, and drooling over this candy.  She never put a morsel in her mouth though:)

When the guests arrive, they should be given a ball of gingerbread cookie dough.  Each child makes a gingerbread man shape and puts it on a cookie sheet. 

The cookie sheet never gets put in the oven, but the timer gets set.  While the cookies are allegedly baking, the kids can decorate their houses!

              

When the oven timer goes off, you call all the girls over to get the cookies out of the oven.  Of course, the cookies have run away, and a note is all that’s in the oven.  The girls go on a wild gingerbread man chase outside, inside, up and down, finding clues along the way. 

     

The hunt ends up back at the oven where the giant gingerbread cookie is discovered.  At this point there is nothing you can do but serve it up on gingerbread house plates with hot chocolate in gingerbread man mugs. 

To wind down the party you can wrap party favors in different sized boxes.  Play dirty bingo with the packages, even though all the gifts end up the same!  Hand out goodie boxes and books.

       

Take picture of the baby to remember she was there too.

Lastly, you must say good bye to the guests and survey the damage.

 

Clean up will actually happen quickly.  The satisfaction of well made memories will last longer.  It will be hard to just shut off the gingerbread madness.  It helps if big sister offers to read the new book to little sister.

The gingerbread book will probably lead to other books being read.  In fact, the whole Christmas book box may come out.

And that, my friends, is how to have a fun filled, sugar loaded, memory making, magic gingerbread party!