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It’s Christmas Eve! We have a new house and I decided to decorate our exterior as a Christmas Candy Gingerbread House. We are the only ones in our neighborhood with a theme like this, it really looks fantastic! It’s especially satisfying hearing kids outside squealing “it’s real candy!”
We didn’t go overboard purchasing lights though, we will save that for boxing day sales so that next year the whole roof will be lit! But for this year we kept the lights low and did a few DIY projects, the lollipops and the gingerbread men. Here’s how:
DIY Lollipop Lawn Decorations
The lollipops were super simple. All I did was paint a peppermint pattern using red acrylic paint on the back of 20 paper plates. Then I stapled 2 plates together along the edges with the red facing out so I could see the candy from inside and so could people walking outside. I left a space between staples on the bottom to allow for a bamboo garden stake to go in between. Then, I wrapped a piece of clear wrapping paper around the top completely surrounding the paper plates to protect them from the elements and tied it with a big ribbon. That’s it! They really look awesome and so far have not been affected by the snow and wind! There are 10 in total.
DIY Wooden Gingerbread Lawn Decorations
The gingerbread men were also really easy. We got a big piece of plywood and cut it in half. Then I drew the shape of the gingerbread man with a pencil. I did this freehand copying this image I was totally inspired and awestruck by, a house decorated by Christine McConnell.
Picture Source: Christine McConnell’s Instagram (it’s amazing!)
My husband cut the shape out using a jigsaw on both pieces of the plywood. Next, I went over top of one of the cutout gingerbread men with paper and made a stencil for where I wanted the paint to go. Because I’m pregnant this was another husband job, he’s so cooperative! He laid my stencil on the wood and spray painted with red and white. Then he flipped the stencil over and did the opposite side of the other gingerbread cutout so I had two gingerbread men running in opposite directions.
Because we have a retaining wall in our front yard, I didn’t actually build anything on the back to support them or hold them in place, they are perfectly secure leaning against the wall. If that doesn’t work for you, I’d recommend both a stake going straight down into the ground as well as something propping it up at an angel so they don’t get blown over by the wind.
Of course, there is a little more turquoise Christmas decor inside the house! We actually have two trees. The first one has been up since Baby J’s Frozen Winter Wonderland Birthday Party in our dining room. Our second tree is tucked in the corner in our living room and is much more colourful and family friendly. You’ll notice both trees don’t have much going on in the bottom third, thanks to curious little toddler hands!
I wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope to get at least one baking blog up before New Year’s! It’s been tricky getting much done around here but we are essentially unpacked now and things slow down after Christmas, plus I’m out of the first trimester exhaustion phase, woohoo! I’m off to get some cookies in the oven, roll some Dark Rum Balls and get my hair brushed into a pageboy for tonight’s party! Happy Holidays!
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Camera: I used my new Huawei P20 Pro for this blog post, I think the pictures are pretty great…but I still prefer my Olympus!
turquoise toffee 