6th Annual Gingerbread House Tea Party

This past weekend, we hosted our 6th annual Gingerbread House Tea Party! It was full of gingerbread houses, twinkling lights, candy canes, gum drops and lots of Christmas magic!

We kick off the Christmas season with this tradition, one my mom began when I was a little girl, hosting mother/daughter gingerbread house tea parties each December! It’s our FAVORITE day of the year!

We’ve continued the tradition with my daughter (joined by my youngest this year – she took her FIRST steps at the party!) every year since she was two. Come along and take a look at this year’s Gingerbread House Tea Party!

Invitations

The fun begins when our little party-goers receive their tea party invitation. I always love to find unique gingerbread house party invites, and I love these invites from PaperBuilt. We used these die-cut style invites a few years ago, but this year, we customized a new house design that I love!

Find more of our favorite links to invitations, gingerbread house tools, party decor, etc here in our Gingerbread House Resources!

Pink Nutcracker Greeters

This year, we greeted our guests with these precious pink nutcrackers on each side of the entrance! At 4 feet tall, they make the perfect special party greeters to the Gingerbread House party!

Find them here (we did paint the green triangle on the body white). And we added the candy cane and red bow.

More details on the gingerbread Christmas tree below, it’s one of my favorites!

Our Gingerbread House Christmas tree sits right inside the foyer, more details on it below!

The Gingerbread House Tea Party Table

If you’ve seen our parties over the past few years, you recognize many elements. I love the softness of the pale pink with pops of red – and lots of holiday bows!

My daughter loves to help set up the party, she looks forward to this day all year long!

Tablecloth

This is the exact tablecloth here that we used. I ADORE the pink and white check, and I think it’s such a classic print. We used two of them (hemmed) on the children’s tables.

Tables & Chairs

For the little tables, I love the play tables from Pottery Barn Kids. I actually shoot most of my recipe photos on one that I leave in my office. I let Blakely have another as a “play table”. 

For the chairs, I originally bought several from Chiavari Chair Co., but I found these almost exactly same ones on Amazon. They’re an investment, but we use them every year for so many occasions. It looks like they might not be on Amazon Prime now, but check back!

As you can see, my youngest took right to the fun!

Gingerbread Party Table Details

Each place setting has a big graham cracker style gingerbread house that we pre-make before the party. This allows the girls to get right to the fun part – decorating their gingerbread houses!

We make the houses, and you can too! Our full tutorial for making these gingerbread houses is here! More details on the houses below.

A big bow on top of each house is our signature style, and we love to change up the ribbon annually. This year, we went with a red and white peppermint stripe ribbon. It came from Hobby Lobby (so did the light pink and white gingham ribbon on the big house).

We placed the houses on pale pink Caspari paper plates and luckily, we had a set of the darling gingerbread house napkins from Design Design still left. We desperately wish they’d still make them, but I’ll share if I find similar!

Down the center of the table, I have lots of Christmas decor like our collection of pink nutcrackers, red ribbon Christmas trees, pink bottle brush trees, twinkle lights, etc! Here are a few links if you’re looking for similar items..

• Where to Find the Best Pink Nutcrackers
• My Favorite Twinkle Fairy Lights
• Large Pale Pink Centerpiece Cake Stand

We always have several floral arrangements of simple red and light pink roses. They’re typically easy to find and coordinate perfectly with the party colors.

Each little girl had a silver tea cup (passed down from my mom) for our Christmas fruit tea, a precious gingerbread house cookie (made locally by Morgan of The Sugary Cookie) and lots of little bowls and paper cups filled to the brim with sweet candies for decorating!

We loved the sweet gingerbread house place cards! Thank you to Ashlea along with the help of Drew B. Doodles for these darling additions!

Tip: Double your place cards and use the extra set to stick onto tray-style boxes that the girls can place their houses in to carry home! We find these boxes/trays at Hobby Lobby every holiday. They have open handles so they’re easy to carry.

On the back of each chair, we always like to add a little something fun along with a big red bow! This year, we found these adorable pink and red peppermint lollipop ornaments from At Home.

They made the perfect “sweet” addition to the chairs!

Gingerbread House Christmas Tree

We added this sweet gingerbread house Christmas tree a few years ago, and we have continued to embellish it each year. It’s our FAVORITE decoration at the party!

We made the miniature gingerbread houses hanging from the tree (find our tutorial for making mini gingerbread houses here).

Then we added on lots of jumbo marshmallows and gum drops. We also use a lot of the candy ornaments from Hobby Lobby (like the lollipops and peppermints).

Finally, tinsel gives it some sparkle for the perfect finishing touch! This is a very easy tree idea to recreate. It would be precious in a child’s room, playroom, kitchen, etc.

Decorating the Gingerbread Houses!

I share a FULL CANDY LIST in our gingerbread house video post! I also have a few of my favorite candy finds in my Amazon list here!

There you’ll also find links to the cute pink and white striped marshmallows and pink shimmer gum-balls that we have every year!

I recommend getting a variety of candies in different sizes and colors. Also grab a few bags of mini marshmallows, these are really fun on the houses.

We always do a few signature touches like sprinkles on the roofs of the houses and a big bow on top!

We also like to hand out additional little bows, decorative wreaths, etc (mostly from craft stores like Hobby Lobby) for the kids to use to embellish their houses.

• Our Gingerbread House Icing recipe!
• How to make our Gingerbread Houses (+VIDEO)
• Make our Miniature Gingerbread Houses
• The BEST Royal Icing decorator for gingerbread houses!

As the girls (and moms!) enjoy decorating their gingerbread houses, we also have a full treat and drink table in the dining room full of a few of our favorite goodies.

• Pimento Cheese Toast Cups (find the recipe in my book)
• Chocolate Fudge (recipe in my book)
• Mini Chocolate Glazed Cupcakes
• Sugar Cookies
• Ham Yeast Rolls
• Pimento Cheese Sausage Balls
• Strawberries with Powdered Sugar
• Champagne (for moms)
• Fruit Tea

Cheers to a fabulous Gingerbread House Tea Party!

If you have ANY questions, please let me know! I hope you’re inspired to throw your own Gingerbread House Tea Party!

Earlier this year, I published an article on Gingerbread House Parties by Color Scheme with ideas for boy parties and gender-neutral parties too!

Thank you to Evin Photography for your help with photos!