It’s time for a gingerbread decorating party! Grab all your favorite holiday candy, and gingerbread kits and create this fun gingerbread charcuterie board. Place this in the center of the table and let everyone create their own house. Decorating contest optional!
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The smell of gingerbread gives me all the warm fuzzies this time of year! Of course, there are the fresh-baked gingerbread desserts I make every year like gingerbread tres leches and gingerbread cupcakes, but then there’s also the gingerbread that’s meant to be decorated and admired!
Setting up a gingerbread charcuterie board is a fun and exciting way to prepare to have some gingerbread house-building fun this holiday season!
Having a wide assortment of sweets and treats to choose from is so much better than limiting yourself to what comes in the kit. This way you can add anything you like and make your houses stand out.
Play your favorite Christmas songs and make it a DIY activity out of it that everyone can enjoy!
The best part of decorating gingerbread houses, besides a little friendly competition of course, is nibbling on the gumdrops and candy canes hoping you have enough for your house! With a gingerbread charcuterie board, you’ll have plenty of options to choose from (and snack on)! You could even add a few little gingerbread cookies for people to make entire villages!
Why A Gingerbread Charcuterie Board?
Gorgeous presentation. Who wouldn’t get excited at the very sight of a platter full of cookies, candy, and chocolate?! The colors, the textures – all for the taking!
Easy to prepare. Nothing is homemade (unless of course, you want it to be), and can easily be found at your local grocery stores, candy shops, bakery supply stores, you name it. If you can’t find one thing, replace it with another.
Customizable. The inspiration is limitless. Use whatever items your heart desires. There’s no right or wrong way to set up a gingerbread charcuterie board. Use my recipe as a guide, and then take it and run with it. You could even do something themed like we did our Christmas movie gingerbread house night!
Ingredients
Ingredient notes
As mentioned earlier, this is just a jumping-off point. Use your favorite decorative items by adding to this list, or swapping something out. My only recommendation would be to stick with the color scheme of red, green, and white for Christmas unless you’re having a themed competition of course!
Gingerbread House Basics
- Gingerbread house kit – Any design you like! You could also use graham crackers if you’d prefer (like we did for our Halloween haunted houses activity) but they do tend to fall apart a little easier.
- Icing – this is the gingerbread house icing recipe I typically use!
Gingerbread House Toppings
- Candies – Hot Tamales, gum drops, green M&Ms, Twizzlers, green suckers, Christmas nerds, Christmas sprinkles, mini marshmallows.
- Mints – Peppermints, peppermint sticks, candy canes.
- Chocolates – Andes mints, mini white chocolate Kit Kats, snow caps, white chocolate covered pretzels.
How to make a Gingerbread Charcuterie Board
Making this gingerbread board is pretty straightforward – the hardest part is definitely just the shopping to buy all the ingredients!
Start by laying the gingerbread houses out onto a large serving tray. I recommend using premade kits to make the process easier.
Divide the frosting out into a few different small bowls to place around the board. If you use store-bought frosting, make sure to add some powdered sugar to the frosting to stiffen it up and use it as glue.
Tip!
Alternately, you could also put tubes of icing around the board for people to pick up and use like we did for our Christmas movie night!
Add small bowls filled with the smaller candies and sprinkles. I like to spread these out around the board away from the frostings simply for aesthetic purposes.
Next, add your favorite candy or treats to the board as well as any cookie cutters you want to use! Cookie cutters also make a really fun structure to hold toppings if you’re not actually going to use them!
Fill any other space on the board with anything else you might need to decorate a gingerbread house.
And that’s it – your gingerbread house charcuterie board is ready to go! Put it in the center of the table, give everyone a piece of cardboard to build their house on, and everyone can start building!
This is one of the easiest and prettiest ways to lay out everything you need to make a gingerbread house! It’s the perfect way to set the expectation for a fun gingerbread house making party!
Tips & Tricks
Buy premade gingerbread kits, this will save a lot of time.
Grab all the theater candy boxes from your local grocery store for around $1 or from Dollar Tree – they have tons of options. This is a great inexpensive board that will last hours.
Use disposable tin pans to build your houses. They’re great for catching falling candy and sprinkles to eliminate mess. Toss the pans when you’re done.
Adding cookie cutters is completely optional, and more decorative than anything, but they are a cute way to bring in the festive flair to the serving board.
Recipe FAQs
Should I decorate or build a gingerbread house first?
It’s totally up to you! Many times people put their house together first so they can see the complete picture as they work, however, you can decorate before you assemble.
If you assemble your house before decorating it, allow time for the “glue” on the gingerbread house to dry. If not, there is a chance the roof will collapse.
What do you put on the bottom of a gingerbread house?
You’ll want to use something sturdy, yet portable. Use something like a cake board, a cookie sheet, or a thick piece of clean, unused cardboard. The kids do come with plastic bases most of the time, so you can also use that.
No matter what you use, it needs icing “glue” to stick.
How do you get a gingerbread house to stand up?
Start by attaching the corners, working with one area at a time, and making sure it dries before decorating.
Attach two corners, then attach another two corners and bring them together to form a hollow rectangle.
First the front of the house to one of the sides, then the back of the house to the other side (remember to make sure you attach the pieces so that the decorative side is facing outward. Then attach them all. Finally, attach the entire base of the house to whatever base you’re building it on.
Once all that is dry, you can build the roof.
What are some good gingerbread house toppings?
You can’t go wrong with gumdrops! Peppermint candies, sprinkles, and pretzels are always good choices. It depends on what you like. Are you a chocolate lover or more of a candy lover? Do you enjoy cleaning up sprinkles that have fallen on the floor until Easter? Or would you prefer to keep it simple?
Go nuts, it’s all you!
How do you store a gingerbread house?
Let’s be honest, the store-bought kits don’t provide us with top-notch quality gingerbread. For that, you’re going to have to make my soft gingerbread cookies. So, it’s essentially made to last uncovered at room temperature.
It’ll last for up to a week, and probably longer, however, it’ll turn stale the longer you have it.
Once you are ready to eat it, break it up into pieces, and enjoy! Oh, and leave a piece or two out for Santa.
More Festive Charcuterie Boards
While I’m sure people will likely be eating the treats from their gingerbread houses, you could also serve up one of these fun festive charcuterie boards for actual snacks!
- Christmas tree cheese board – Cheese, crackers, briny olives, and other finger foods are arranged in a Christmas tree shape for a fun presentation for the holidays.
- Caramel apple board – Lay out the sprinkles and have everyone dip and decorate their own apple slices!
- Grinch charcuterie board – Liven up your Grinch-themed party with this platter of chocolate, candy, and fresh fruit shaped like the Grinch’s face!
- Christmas charcuterie wreath – Serve your appetizer cheese, meat, and snacks in a wreath shape complete with greens for garnish and a pretty bow on top!
- Breakfast charcuterie board – A great way to serve Christmas breakfast or brunch on Christmas day!
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Gingerbread Charcuterie Board
Ingredients
- Gingerbread house kit
- icing
- powdered sugar
- hot tamales
- Andes mints
- peppermints
- Gum drops
- mini white choclate kit kats
- snow caps
- Green m&ms
- Twizzlers
- peppermint sticks
- Candy canes
- white choalte covered pretzels
- Green suckers
- Christmas nerds
- Christmas sprinkles
- mini marshmallows
Instructions
- Start by laying the gingerbread houses out onto a large serving tray.Gingerbread house kit
- Divide the frosting out into a few different small bowls toplace around the board. If you use store bought frosting, make sure to add some powdered sugar to the frosting to stiffen it up and use as a glue.icing, powdered sugar
- Add your favorite candy or treats to the board as well as any cookie cutters you want to use!hot tamales, Andes mints, peppermints, Gum drops, mini white choclate kit kats, snow caps, Green m&ms, Twizzlers, peppermint sticks, Candy canes, white choalte covered pretzels, Green suckers, Christmas nerds, Christmas sprinkles, mini marshmallows
- Fill any other space on the board with anything else you might need to decorate a gingerbread house.
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