Gingerbread Church.  That’s right, this year we built a church.  In the name of tradition, the Randall’s once again invited us over for round two of gingerbread house building!  We were excited, as we really enjoyed decorating gingerbread last year.  I wanted to do something different, so Rick and I browsed Google images for gingerbread house ideas. We saw some incredible houses, but they were very complicated and I just didn’t feel inspired by any of them.  Rick kept asking, “Well, what kind of house do you want?”  “I dunno, a cool one?”  Uh huh..that sure narrows it down.  Well, I turned to my Christmas decor and wanted to model our gingerbread house after this little red and white church that sits on our bar.  Rick figured out the layout and created a pattern for me, so I could cut it out.  He’s  genius like that.

By placing the pattern over the rolled gingerbread, I was able to get the exact shape I needed.  I then transferred the mat and cut outs to the cookie sheet and baked for 9 minutes at 350.  I used the same recipe for the gingerbread and the icing that I used on my Halloween house that you can find here.

The roof on the left side slid right off  10 minutes after we had attached it. I thought we were doomed!  The weight of the shingles pulled it right off!

I used the Holiday M&Ms for siding, red hots for the roof rims, nonpareils for shingles, Hershey’s Kisses and Brach’s Spearmint leaves for bushes, Necco Canada Mints for the ground cover, peppermint patties for a low fence and Andes Mints for the pathway and steps.  And LOTS of icing to hold it all together!  ( I actually didn’t adhere any of the peppermint patties or Canada mints to the ground…which will make it easier for Rick and I to start eating off this church in no time…without having to reach for a butter knife to pry off the goods!)

The consistency of the icing was just right, so I was able to do icicles with ease.

For the Bell Tower, we used a Butterfinger chocolate bell and suspended it underneath the roof.  Glittery sprinkles were easier then cutting M&M’s in half to fit, and it kept the design simple.

I love these soft peppermints, and had to incorporate them somehow!

An aerial shot of the Gingerbread Church:

It was fun building and piecing this church together.  I felt like an architect!  Some of our gingerbread was too soft, and began to collapse.  Be sure to bake it long enough that its not soft, but not too long, that it gets brown on the edges.  When it’s in between, you can still bend it a little or trim it without breaking it.  I love this new tradition!  I’d love to see your Gingerbread houses!