Gingerbread Pals Party
With most parties and big events on hold this year, I have been turning my party planning hobby (obsession) towards making some small, yet special events for my own family. Celebrating small can be just as sweet!
Each year we decorate gingerbread houses and sugar cookies as part of our holiday traditions. Adding adorable gingerbread decorations will make that tradition feel really festive despite having to scale back with who we share the activity with. Here’s what I came up with…
My five year old son’s favorite color is pink! He says it is the “yummiest color,” and since pastels are on trend right now, I thought incorporating a soft pink into the holiday decor would be something he would love. This adorable gingerbread printable collection from Nestling Designs on Etsy caught my eye right away. I like the colors included in this design and that is adds the light light blue, and pink with wintergreen, red and white.
I used my Silhouette Cameo electronic cutter to make peppermint candy swirls and candy canes to make pink peppermint banners. I also found a Gingerbread Baking Co. modifiable design from the Silhouette Design store, printed it out, put it in an inexpensive frame from Target and added a fun pink paper bow I created with this design from the Silhouette Design Store.
The Gingerbread Party kit from Etsy came with printable banners of the gingerbread pals and gingerbread houses. I printed the banner pieces at 50% because we were just decorating a small space, but they are so detailed and would also look adorable at full size. I printed the 3-D printable gingerbread houses. They print on more than one page, but are really easy to cut out and glue tabs together. The kids would have so much fun creating this gingerbread village too!
The printable kit contained lots of other fun coordinating paper pieces such as table signs, cupcake and cake toppers and printables that could be added to banners or displays. I am a sucker for a cute milk bottle decorations and thought that these gingerbread buttons were just too cute not to use. I also added a cut out gingerbread friend to the top of the jar along with a festive red and white paper straw.
I printed a few of the favor bag topers which are two sided. The treat bags I had on hand were smaller than theses toppers, so I opted to use the candy side and then layered a small gingerbread friend with a glue dot and trimmed the design down. I just used staples to fasten the paper topper to the goodies.
I arranged the paper gingerbread houses with some white and glass cake stands and candy dishes and they set a sweet and adorable tablescape. I added a faux flocked mini tree and white furry ball garland and Pillowfort brand faux fur rug all from Target to add a little texture to the party set up. The Santa “jolly” centerpiece was an adorable Walmart find for just a few dollars.
Outside of all the candy for decorating our gingerbread houses, I used some simple sweets to finish off the look of this party table including, peppermint twist and christmas tree shaped marshmallows, green butter mints with red gobstoppers, the candy cane pretzel treats from Costco, Trader Joe’s assorted butter cookies and our family favorite the Trader Joe gingerbread cookies.
We decided it would be fun to try an additional set up in my son’s closet play space. He inherited this retro pink kitchen from his big sisters and it looks adorable all fancied up for the holiday. Earlier in the quarantine we finished off this play space for him. At that time I had asked him if he wanted me to paint it navy or gray to match the vehicle and space theme of his bedroom. He was adamant that the kitchen needed to stay pink! Cool, Buddy!
I used the same decorations to make his play space feel cheery and full of friendly holiday spirit. This space has a low ceiling and strong shape so it was hard to take photos, especially ones without a lot of shadows, but the gingerbread and peppermint pieces look really adorable in this space!
Cal will be enjoying some of theses adorable decorations to his play area all season!
For more details on this easy to make balloon and paper holiday wreath go to this post where we detail all the steps and supplies needed. This wreath is a fun statement piece that is easy to make!
The balloon wreath found it’s way into Janie’s bedroom as party of her seasonal decor, too!
If you are looking for more fun and easy paper crafts to help celebrate the season, check out this post on fun DIY holiday advent calendars.
The photos above are links to the adorable gingerbread printables that we used for this set up. You can buy the entire package from Nestling Design for less than twenty dollars, or several of the items are available a la carte for even less, like the gingerbread kid printable banner.
Below are links to other products that we love that could help you achieve a similar party style.