My mother initiated this gingerbread house-making tradition as a grandmother, with my younger brother’s children far away in Tennessee, long after I had left the nest and started my own family. Being a busy mother myself, my holidays were caught up in attempting to carry on the cookie-making traditions I was raised on, with my own two sons, both of whom turned out to be fairly decent cooks in most respects, but were all thumbs with my favorite traditional family recipes. Those traditions died finally for me when my boys left my nest, and I knew I’d better cease this goodie-cooking to protect my waistline and arteries.
What happened to Tradition — our cookie tradition? Well, let’s just say it sweetly flew out the gingerbread house window.
Not to worry, once again I borrow from my mother’s tradition. The Kroger brand kit, shown in the photo, makes it easy by providing a molded plastic base for the house to sit on, pre-made gingerbread walls, roof, and figures, candy drops, and even pre-mixed icing (the icing does have a short drying span, which is good, since the gumdrops tend to slide with its more liquid thick Elmer’s Glue-like consistency). This little kit pits the budding interest in crafts my 3-year-old-granddaughter possesses against the short attention span of my 1-year-old grandson. Turns out to be a win-win situation for us all.
Please share with us your favorite childhood holiday tradition!
Contributed by Kathy Bolger, Senior Graphic Designer for Today’s Woman magazine.
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