Small milk cartons (1/2 pint from school are great used in pairs)
Cardboard squares
Tape
Royal Icing
Graham Crackers
Candies for decorations
Plastic Knives (one per decorator)
Plates to put candy and icing on
Plastic Grocery Bags w/ handles (to carry houses home in)
1. Tape milk cartons to cardboard squares.
2. Label bottom of squares w/ name of decorator.
3. Pass out plates of candy and icing.
4. Each decorator should have enough graham crackers to cover the sides of milk cartons.
5. Using the royal icing as glue, stick the graham crackers on carton as wall covering. Cover the roof w/ icing, candy or whatever you desire.
6. Use candy for paving a walk, windows on the house, lights, doors, etc.
Over the years we have developed traditional decorating items. For example, we use Cookie Crisp cereal for roof shingles or paving stones. Lifesaver Holes make great Christmas lights. Skinny licorice lines windows or doors. Pointed ice cream cones make great trees. You can ice them ahead of time w/ green tinted royal icing. Spearmint leaves make wonderful bushes. Pretzels make nice fences.
One of our favorites is ice skating ponds made of blue mints. These are the clear ones, same size as butterscotches. Place them on a foil covered cookie sheet and melt them in the oven at 250╝ for about 10 minutes╤watch them carefully! Use just one to make little ponds or put several next to each other for big ponds. Teddy Grahams make perfect skaters!
Because of the possibility of salmonella and the tendency for my Scouts to lick their fingers I use meringue powder for the royal icing. This is available wherever cake decorating supplies are sold. The recipe for royal icing is on the container. The other advantage to meringue powder is that the icing can be rebeaten. If made w/ egg whites it must be made no more than an hour before your meeting. I figure on using a pound of powdered sugar for each 2 girls. Keep the icing covered w/ a damp paper towel when not dishing it out. Because it has no fat in it, this icing dries like cement but cleans up very easily w/ warm water.
Because this is one of the things we do every year, we are always on the lookout for cheap candy. I bought Nerds and Mike&Ikes on sale after Halloween this year. The other thing we╒ll use this year is those new mini M&Ms.
When the girls did this as Daisies it was all we could do to keep them from eating the candy off the house before they got it home. One year we made a BIG house using 1/2 gallon milk cartons to give away as well as the little individual ones. Last year for the first time we invited our senior citizen friends to come make houses with us. We meet in the school. It was a wonderful afternoon for many of them. I don╒t know when the last time was that they had visited an elementary school. I know that many of the houses lasted through the holidays last year. We would like to bake a gingerbread house one year!
